Spain 2 Morocco 2: Iago Aspas scores late equaliser as Fernando Hierro’s men limp through to last 16
Sergio Ramos and Co topped the group and will face Russia in the next round
SOMETIMES you think your name might just be on the trophy after all.
Trailing 2-1 with ten minutes to go, Spain thought they were limping out of Group B in second place when Iago Aspas flicked the most controversial of equalisers.
But then came news that Iran had dramatically levelled against Portugal and suddenly they were top and staring at an easier passage to glory.
Not that you’d fancy them too much for it after this, mind, after their suicide defence for the opener when Andres Iniesta dropped a real clanger and Khalid Boutaib raced clear to put Morocco ahead.
Yousseef En Nesyri out-jumped Sergio Ramos with ten minutes to go for a Moroccan second and we were staring at the unbelievable.
Spain couldn’t claim a hard luck story either, because for all their pretty passing and possession, they didn’t exactly beat a path to the Africans’ goal.
Indeed they’d have been further behind if David De Gea hadn’t stood firm when Boutaib had an earlier one on one as well.
To be fair they levelled when Iniesta made amends with a delightful run and pass which Isco smashed into the roof of the net.
From that moment you expected a goal avalanche from the footballiing artists. It never came.
Instead they leaked that second and looked cooked.
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But then Isco whipped in a cross, Aspas flicked out a foot and although ref Ravshan Irmatov disallowed it, VAR proved Mark Bouyssoufa had played him on.
The Moroccan bench went wild and at one stage looked like invading the pitch as they let the ref know exactly what they felt.
It was, to be fair, a legal goal. It wasn’t, though, the most merited.
The 2010 champions now face the hosts on Sunday afternoon and will have to up their game if they want to have any chance of repeating their success of eight years ago.
