原創英文球評（五）Thanks for the surreal 10 years, Spain.

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Curtain falls. Performance over. Spain out.

Stunning? But not really. This is football.

When it was still 1-1 even in the 120th minute of the game, you knew something was going to happen - once you are in the shoot-out, the upset is already there awaiting.

The 2010 World Cup champion Spain was shocked by the indomitable Russians, after a 120-minute domination of the match except for an extra goal.

The opening of the game was not friendly to Russians - the free kick by Asensio forced Ignashevich to get tangled with Sergio Ramos at the far post, where his heel knocked the ball into the net, causing an own goal that hurt the Russia team just in the 12th minute. Ignashevich was innocent as he was trying his best to block the way of the captain of Spain.

Veterans do make mistakes.

In quite a while, approximately 30 minutes, Russian fans were desperately watching the home team squeezed back in their own half court. Spanish seemed to take the full control of the match by their well-renowned tiki-taka, which means slick and clear one-touch passes without disturbance.

But Russians said that was not the right script. They tied the game after 41 minutes - the powerful striker of Russia, Artem Dzyuba, who created the penalty after his header hit Gerard Piques arm, sent the ball home and lit up the whole stadium.

Drawing level made Russians play even more cautiously. Spain could have been more aggressive, but they were just too indulged in passing rather than scoring, with a potential penalty denied by the referee at the late stage of the extra-time (113th minute).

There were already several penalties rejected by VAR reviewing process. Spanish might be a bit unlucky, but their being insufficiently sharp and determined for the win finally got them punished.

In the shoot-out, uncertainty would be the new certainty.

The heroic goal keeper of Russia, Akinfeev, saved Spanish midfielder Kokes penalty as well as Aspas, to give their team a historic moment sparking the wildest celebration on this tumultuous night in Moscow.

Just like the Wulihe, Shenyang as the place where the dream started for Chinese footballers and fans, Moscow witnessed the take-off of this Russia team who transformed from Mr. Nobody to a real contender of championship after eliminating Spain.

But now for Spanish, Moscow has become another place of pain for the metadors.

At the end of day, many thanks for Spain - they brought us a brilliant ten years golden age of tiki-taka and incomparable beautiful skills of football. Thank you so much. Now it is time for the next chapter.

See you later, the state-of-the-art football.

Latest news:

Andres Iniesta quit the national team. Well, what can we say? Not every ending of the story is a "happily ever after". People should move on.

For Spanish football, what must be realised is that being a stick-in-the-mud cannot save them in the future. The trend of speeding up in the football world has been so obvious, so now it is their turn to adapt to it, although they used to be the one creating the new trend for others to follow.

另，我的中文球評（不常寫，但是作為一枚接近20年的老球迷，還是會有自己的觀點輸出）：

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