A 'shipwreck' and 'vulgar' – how Spain reacted to Scotland's stunning win
The vultures are already circling for Spain coach Luis de la Fuente following Scotland's superb 2-0 win in Euro 2024 qualifying on Tuesday, with the new boss eviscerated in the Spanish press for what has been dubbed 'A shipwreck in Glasgow'. –
It makes for grim reading for Luis Enrique's successor, who took over following Spain's shock World Cup elimination at the hands of Morocco. As De La Fuente surveys the damage from Scotland's historic victory, he will find few friends in the Spanish press.
Questions over De La Fuente’s suitability for the job have already arisen, with Mundo Deportivo describing the defeat as “Sore” in a short but simple front page headline. “La Roja fall in Glasgow with a double from McTominay in a first KO of the De La Fuente era that sows doubts,” the Barcelona-based daily adds.
Madrid-based newspaper Marca asked “What’s the plan?” on their front page and labelled the head coach’s selection “a vulgar and inconsistent team who paid for their mistakes with a painful defeat”.
AS published “Shipwreck in Glasgow” on their front page, and said their display after the break was “horrible”. The paper blamed De La Fuente’s eight changes from last week’s 3-0 win over Norway as the cause of the loss.
Barcelona paper Sport followed AS' lead and under the headline “Shipwreck”, their report said: “La Roja, without any Barcelona players in the starting line-up, falls against Scotland with a poor showing - De le Fuente made eight changes and the team broke up in defence and only Joselu created danger in attack.”
De La Fuente has been criticised for making eight changes to the side that beat Norway 3-0 in Spain's opening qualifier.
On television programme El Chiringuito, renowned for sensationalism, presenter Josep Pedrerol had no qualms questioning both the previous coach and the incumbent: "I don't know if Luis de la Fuente is the best candidate for Spain, but it's unfair to remember Luis Enrique. We made a dreadful fool of ourselves in Qatar. He played his role in the World Cup, which was as a streamer," he said, referring to Luis Enrique's appearances on social media platform Twitch throughout their campaign in Qatar.
Real Madrid legend Guti went further on the same show, attacking De La Fuente's selection policy: "It's been shown that going to the national team is very cheap. You have to raise the level of your club tenfold to play for Spain. Luis de la Fuente's words of satisfaction are worrying because the players go home thinking they have been good," he said.
"When you start your career in the national team it's normal to try out different players, but you have to have a base. It's not normal to change eight players compared to the game against Norway. The fans think that the coach has tried to please everyone."
The sports radio, so traditional late at night in Spain, showed no mercy to De la Fuente. "The worst thing is not the defeat but the image. I'm disappointed and disillusioned. You have to give the coach time, but the players are looking for references on the bench as they did with Luis Enrique and they didn't find them in Luis de la Fuente", said Manu Carreño, presenter of El Larguero on Cadena SER.
On Cadena COPE's El Partidazo, Juanma Castaño described the mood in Spain: "Anyone looking for confrontation is going to find it," he said, referring to how polarised Spain is after defeat at Hampden Park.
It's not all bad, though. De La Fuente at least had one supporter in the wake of the defeat. On Twitter, World Cup winner Iker Casillas said: "Last Saturday Spain were incredible. We were going to win the fourth Euro. Nobody remembered Luis Enrique. Today the coach is a wreck. Spain is a disaster. They won't even qualify. And we've only just started..."
