Spain ends Van ‘t Schip World Cup dream and knocks Sweden off the throne

Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 10:47 PM• Last update: 22:55

Spain took full advantage of Sweden’s loss in the World Cup qualifier on Thursday. Luis Enrique’s team kept it exciting for a long time, but eventually put the Greece of John van ‘t Schip aside with 0-1. As a result, la Roja Sweden took the lead in Group B, which surprisingly lost 2-0 earlier that evening in and against Georgia. Greece remains in third place and can no longer qualify. Germany, which was the first European country to have already qualified for the final tournament, took out in Group J by beating Liechtenstein 9-0.

Greece – Spain 0-1
Spain had seen the direct competition lose and knew what to do. In the 17th minute, Koke put debutant Raúl de Tomás alone in front of goalkeeper Odisseas Vlachodimos, but the attacker couldn’t control his nerves and let the ball get stolen. Four minutes later, Giorgos Masouras thought to give the Greeks the lead. The Olympiacos attacker successfully sent a pass from Thanasis Androutsos to the top right corner, only to be called back for offside. Pablo Sarabia broke the spell for the visitors. In a duel for the ball, Iñigo Martínez was torpedoed by Dimitrios Giannoulis and Sarabia took advantage of the opportunity: 0-1.

Vlachodimos kept the damage limited until halftime by reversing attempts by José Gaya and Alvaro Morata; a bang from Rodri bounced off the body of Dimitrios Goutas. Van ‘t Schip intervened for the second half by changing his entire attack, including AZ striker Vangelos Pavlidis. The home team worked drowsy, but was unable to create anything until ten minutes before the end. A free kick by Konstantinos Tsimikas grazed Giorgios Tzavellas’ head and the ball sailed wide of goalkeeper Unai Simón’s goal. With hanging and strangling, the Spaniards finally managed to pull the victory over the line. Spain comes to sixteen points; one point more than direct pursuer Sweden.

Germany – Liechtenstein 9-0
The host played for bacon and beans and saw how Jens Hofer left the bottom of Group J (with a point) after seven minutes with ten men. The defender of Liechtenstein planted his studs in Leon Goretzka’s face and was allowed to take a shower from referee Ivana Martincic. Ilkay Gündogan then shot the deserved penalty flawlessly behind goalkeeper Benjamin Büchel: 1-0. After that it went fast in the Volkswagen Arena. However, in twenty minutes Daniel Kaufmann shot the ball into his own goalkeeper, Leroy Sané tapped in through the middle after a nice combination and Marco Reus took full advantage of letting go of Büchel. A monster victory seemed in the making and the Liechtensteiners could be happy that it was ‘only’ 4-0 at halftime.

The breather seemed the Mannschaft however, to have done well: four minutes after the interruption, Sané shot the fifth against the ropes again. Debutant Lukas Nmecha, who had come into the squad for Jonas Hoffmann just before, fired into the post not much later. Just like in the first half, the home team slowed down for a while, until Thomas Müller decided to make it 6-0 in the 75th minute. The seventh goal was beautiful. Ridle Baku clearly felt at home in the stadium of his club VfL Wolfsburg and curled beautifully in the left corner. In the final minutes, Müller made his second by tapping in after a deflected ball and Maximilian Göppel also shot the leather into his own goal for the 9-0 after Kaufmann.