Mexico City: Former Mexico player Hugo Sanchez has said Spain deliberately lost their match against Japan to avoid facing Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals. Sanchez also said Spain coach Lui N Rieke knows the best way to avoid playing against Brazil in the quarter-finals.
But Spanish coach Lui N Rieke has denied such allegations. He made it clear that they didn’t want to finish second in the peloton and were trying to be first. Japan and Costa Rica would come on target with 15 seconds left to break the scoreless tie. Or when Germany lead 5-0 and we’re trying to equalize and Japan score and we’re out. So he didn’t attempt such a bet, he said.
Previously, Japan advanced to the preliminaries after defeating former champions Spain 2-1 in Group E. The Asian powers’ progress is like the GRAP champions with six points from three games. Ritsu Don (48) and Ao Tanaka (51) scored for Japan. Alvaro Morata (11) scored for Spain. Despite the loss, Spain also reached the quarter-finals as the second team with the best goal average. Japan will face Croatia and Spain will face Morocco in the preliminaries.
