Two things that stood out in Morocco’s shootout win over Spain

Morocco beat Spain 3-0 in penalties in a Round of 16 match of the World Cup on Tuesday after the match had finished goalless during the stipulated time.

The North African country thus became the first Arab nation to qualify for the quarterfinals in a World Cup.

Luis Enrique’s Spain, meanwhile, had to endure yet another disappointment in a major tournament after their loss to Italy in the semifinal of the Euro 2020.

On that note,  here’s a look at two things that stood out in the match:

Spain dominated possession, but failed to score in first half

Spain dominated possession from the outset with their customary short passes as Morocco struggled to get the ball. Utilizing a 4-3-3 formation, Spain had the ball more than 75% of the time during the initial 20-25 minutes, but could do little to trouble Morocco’s goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.

Morocco, meanwhile, had all their players behind the ball for the majority of the first half and relied on occasional counter-attacks.

Their left winger Sofiane Boufal attacked frequently down the left flank and gave Spain’s right-back Marcos Llorente, playing in his first match of the World Cup, a torrid time. Boufal also managed to send a few crosses into the penalty box and Morocco came close to scoring from one of them.

Spain failed to register a single shot on target for all their dominance of the ball as their slow build-up allowed Morocco time to regroup and reorganize.

Somewhat surprisingly, Enrique again opted to play Marco Asensio as the centre-forward when it was fairly obvious he was not comfortable playing in that position.

The first shot on target by either side was registered towards the end of the first half, when Morocco left-back Noussair Mazraoui tried his luck from 25 yards out only to see his shot saved by Unai Simon.

Spain made few changes in second half, Morocco showed grit

Spain made a few changes in the second half as Enrique replaced Asensio with Alvaro Morata and then substituted an ineffective Ferran Torres for Nico Williams. Williams’ introduction increased the intensity of Spain’s attacks through the right as he sent in a few crosses into the box.

Dani Olmo, quite subdued in the first half, started getting engaged more often through the inside-left channel in the second half and Gavi switched to the left flank to start moves from there. Moreover, Jordi Alba also overlapped a bit to put pressure on Morocco’s right-back Achraf Hakimi, who could not go into overlaps.

However, Sofyan Amrabat produced a great performance to soak up pressure and also initiated a few moves from the middle third. He played some through passes to Walid Cheddira, who came in as a substitute and failed to score from point blank range on a few occasions.

Morocco also tried playing a few long balls to an onrushing Hakim Ziyech occasionally to utilize the space behind Alba. Spain, meanwhile, could only be direct in their approach when veteran Sergio Busquets played a few chipped through balls from the middle third into the Morocco penalty box.

Still, Pablo Sarabia, who replaced Williams in the dying minutes of the match, could have scored from a long Rodri cross, but saw his shot skim the bar.

It was literally the last kick of the match and showed that Spain could have been more dangerous had they been able to play more such crosses into the box instead of always relying on short passes to build up slowly.

Bounou then produced a heroic performance in the tie-break, saving two of Spain’s three shots taken (Sarabia hit the post in the Spaniards’ first attempt) while Morocco scored from three of their four kicks to register their most memorable victory yet.