Who would have thought that prior to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, La Liga’s elite players would pretty much all be heading home?
It all started on Saturday when both Argentina and Portugal were eliminated in their respective games which meant that once again, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi failed to shine on the World’s biggest stage and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo looks likely to have to make do with just his European Championship to fall back on (its still not bad though).
Just as the shock of the elimination of La Liga’s two shining stars was sinking in, Sunday dawned which meant Spain were in action.
Russia were the opponents and despite making it through to the group stages, many deemed the host nation arguably the worst team left in the tournament.
However, nobody bothered to read Russia head coach Stanislav Cherchesov the script of laying down for the 2010 World Champions as the Russian’s caused the shock of the tournament winning the contest on penalties.
Spain only have themselves to blame, boasting a whopping 1006 passes in the game, Spain did make an early breakthrough thanks to an Ignashevich own goal but Russia was level after Dzyuba converted a penalty with just four minutes to go to the break.
That way it stayed for the remainder of the match and through extra-time and the Russian’s held their nerve to get the win that sees them in the last eight of their home tournament.
With Germany, Portugal, Spain and Argentina, the World Cup has never been more open but La Liga is now lacking a number of star players at the World Cup.
Real Madrid’s group of Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vázquez, Isco, and Marco Asensio whilst Barcelona stars such as Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba are all heading home with their tail between there legs.
Perhaps switching allegiances to France now may be the wise thing for La Liga fans with Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann, and Lucas Hernández, Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé, and Samuel Umtiti still out in Russia looking to do La Liga proud.
Vive La France!
