World Cup: Spain, Morocco ignite Kaliningrad

Spain vs Morocco
Venue: Kaliningrad Stadium
Kick off: 7pm

Spain can put their pre-tournament problems behind them and win World Cup Group B, if they beat Morocco in Kaliningrad and better Portugal’s result against Iran this evening.
A nightmare start against Portugal, trailing to Cristiano Ronaldo’s fourth-minute penalty less than two days after Julen Lopetegui’s sacking on the eve of the tournament, looks a world away since Fernando Hierro led his country to joint-top of the group after two games.
It means the 2010 World Cup winners look like avoiding a repeat of the humiliation they suffered four years ago in Brazil, but they must still overcome a Morocco side who, although eliminated, were only narrowly beaten by Portugal in their last game.
Temporary coach Hierro has compared the current crop of players with the 2010 world champions, rather than the 2014 cohort.
“It’s a similar group, although I know that you can’t have clones unfortunately,” he told Onda Cero.
“But we have a back-up group pushing for places every day. That is the only way to avoid relaxing, by having a group of team-mates that push you closer to the limit every day.
“And we have [Cesar] Azpilicueta, [Nacho] Monreal, Saul [Niguez], Koke, [Alvaro] Odriozola, Iago Aspas, Rodrigo and Thiago [Alcantara]. They don’t allow the others to rest.
“It’s beautiful to see them training and they can be important at any moment.”
Although Morocco’s chances of qualifying for the knockout stages are already over, they could make headlines by potentially having a significant role in who finishes top of Group B.
But coach Herve Renard is only focused on ending the country’s tournament on a high, having fallen to narrow defeats to Iran and Portugal so far.
“My job is not to try and please people. My job is to challenge the Spanish team, to cause difficulties and to make the Moroccan people even prouder,” Renard said.
That Portugal defeat, while according to the manager partly down to poor refereeing, did also see the north African side spurn a number of chances.
Hanard shied away from pointing fingers ahead of the final group game, however, with Morocco yet to score in the tournament after two rounds of matches.
“For a team to be efficient, productive, it is team play,” he said. “We’ve not been efficient together, so I won’t put blame on any particular player.”