Luis Enrique set Spain a ‘task’ of 1,000 penalties ahead of the World Cup

Luis Enrique

The Spain coach, Luis Enrique, gave each of his players the “task” to practice 1,000 penalties for the World Cup, and said he was convinced that they are not a lottery.

The 2010 world champions face Morocco in the round of 16 on Tuesday, with the threat of extra time and penalties looming in the knockout phase of the tournament in Qatar.

Spain beat Switzerland on penalties at Euro 2020 last year, but were knocked out on penalties by Italy in the semifinals.

“More than a year ago, in one of the fields in Spain, I told them that they had to arrive here with at least 1,000 penalties taken,” Luis Enrique said on Monday.

“I imagine they will have done their homework.

If you wait to get here to take penalties.

(it won’t be enough).

The Spaniard insisted that penalties “are not a lottery.

“It is a moment of maximum tension, a moment to show your nerve, and that you can take the penalty in the way you have decided, if you have trained it a thousand times,” he said.

“It says a lot about each player.

It’s trainable, manageable, how you handle stress.

It is less and less lucky, the goalkeepers have more influence.

“We have a very good goalkeeper, any of the three can do very well in this situation.

Every time we finish training I see a lot of players taking penalties”.

The Spain coach also responded to criticism of the team’s style of play: their commitment to playing from defense sometimes puts them under pressure in dangerous areas.

Japan earned a stunning 2-1 victory over Spain, scoring their first goal after the European team fumbled on the edge of their box and Ritsu Doan slammed it shut.

“Each team has its weapons,” said Luis Enrique.

“We want to get the ball to the forwards in the best possible way”, “If we have to hit a long ball, we hit it.

The interpretation has to be done on the pitch”.

He said that he did not agree with the critics of Spain.

“It doesn’t make sense to say that against Japan if we had jumped to clear our lines, we wouldn’t have let the first goal in,” he said.

“We wouldn’t have scored any goals if we had kept kicking long.

We will continue taking the ball from behind, it is what we want”.

Luis Enrique confirmed that César Azpilicueta had recovered from his blow against Japan and that the 26 players would be able to train on Monday night before the game.

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