Spain 7 – 0 Costa Rica: Ferran Torres scores brace as Spain register their biggest World Cup victory
The FIFA World Cup has not even completed a week but already there have been some shocking results in the group stage. Today was an iconic day in Group E as mighty Germany experienced a shock defeat by Japan.
Later on, a young Spanish side demolished their group rivals Costa Rica by an astronomical score of 7-0. Now coming into this game, Spain were not in their best of forms as it was considered a decade ago when they were on top of the world by winning a World Cup in 2010 and Euros in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
Emphatic start by Spain against Costa Rica
The Demolition job began early in the first half when Dani Olmo netted the opener for Spain in 11 minutes. This was followed up by two strikes at 21′ and 31′ minutes by Asensio and Ferran Torres to make it 3-0. The first half came to an end at this scoreline. And the fans who came into the stadium expecting an upset by Coasta Rica knew that this was going to be ugly.
Spain started the second half in a very similar fashion to their first. This time they scored the first goal in under 10 minutes of restart. It was once again Torres who made the miracle happen in 54th minute. Following which Gavi chipped in his first of many FIFA World Cup finals goal in the 74th minute.
The FC Barcelona midfielder became the youngest Spaniard to score in FIFA World Cup Finals.
Later in the game, Carlos Soler (90′) and Morata (90’+2) rounded off the final edges to make it the biggest victory for Spain in World Cup Finals.
Revival of Golden generation?
However, since players like Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Casillas and David Villa have retired from International football, it was all been chaos for the Spanish side, as in the 2014 World Cup they were knocked out in the group stage which was simply embarrassing, then in the Euros and again in the World Cup of 2018, they managed to reach the Round of 16.
But after all those years, Luis Enrique was appointed as the coach of Spain and since his arrival, Spain have been playing brilliantly with the most recent example coming in the Euros when they reached the semi-finals, only getting beaten on penalties by Italy.
Hence, this year they had to prove themselves to their supporters that they are rightfully back. So performing well in the very match was crucial for Enrique’s side and they were facing a tough Costa Rican team who topped their group in the 2014 Cup.
However, since the start of the match, it was completely Spain’s domination and it really looked like they were rolling back the years of South Africa. They led the match by 3-0 at halftime and in the second half, they did not stop attacking due to their mentality and kept on scoring to show their dominance. At the end, they were 7-0 up and this is surely a statement win to the world that the team who won the cup in 2010 is back at its peak.
