And Raphael became the owner of the track in Qatar: the astonishment of King Felipe and a new feat by Gavi

• Chronicle Spain plays billiards with Costa Rica and excites in its premiere with a win for history

• Classification This is group E

• Statistics Championship numbers

• Qatar 2022 World Calendar Dates

A local, with his face painted red and yellow, and wearing a tight-fitting Spanish team shirt, asks around him what song is playing at all times over the public address system.

He carries on his back the 7 with the name of

.

Up to three times the melody sounds in just half an hour.

He does it at the same time that he screams the goals of his Spain.

Someone approaches him and, perhaps, explains that the guy who sings is called Raphael and that 'My big night' is the song chosen by

and his boys to accompany the celebration of his goals during the World Cup .

However, at the north end of the Al Thumama stadium, under that traditional cap that surrounds the venue, a large expedition of Spanish fans (they say around 2,500), do not need anyone to explain who Raphael is.

Nor what those chords mean under the Doha night, thousands of kilometers from Spain.

Between

,

and

, half an hour of vertigo, in what would end up being the team's most brilliant debut in a World Championship, they got fed up with jumping and dancing on their green seats.

Just like

, who was amazed at the replay of each of the seven goals he witnessed from the box.

He did not want to miss a premiere that is already part of the memory of Spanish football.

went there for the first time

, the boy who four years ago, during the World Cup, was shooting with class for Dinamo Zagreb.

The winger, one of Luis Enrique's surprises for his first eleven in Qatar, started the dance against Costa Rica, dodging Navas and giving meaning to Gavi's genius.

It was not just any target, since it became the number 100 for Spain in a world event.

King Felipe, along with Infantino and Rubiales. JAVIER SORIANOAFP

The irrepressible

, by the way, became the youngest footballer to debut for Spain in a World Cup.

He did it at the age of 18, three months and 18 days, pulverizing the record of

, in that distant appointment in Germany'06, when Luis Aragonés gave him the alternative at 19 years and 41 days, in the premiere against Ukraine.

The Sevillian put the spark and ended up launching the last rocket of that unsuspected binge of fireworks.

Only

and the Mexican

got up earlier than him.

Gavi, who hit everyone, ended up being MVP.

From that same background, while a large handful of Qataris?

they let themselves be carried away by the frenzy of the Spanish team, they hugged each other when they saw

dodge

with a cross shot.

It was the second goal with the national team by a footballer who lived through the crash in Russia 2018, to whom Luis Enrique has entrusted a good part of Spain's offensive destiny, regardless of his residual role at Real Madrid.

Ferran's awakening

And although the atmosphere at Al Thamami was cold at times, and not only because of that air conditioning that was noticeable,

, scolded with the goal, after eight games without seeing the goal, bagged an exciting double that gives him back that magical aura every time the national shirt is put on.

He has 15 goals in 32 games.

But, above all, he recovers in time that much-needed self-esteem in this type of competition so short.

Luis Enrique celebrates the victory. ODD ANDERSENAFP

By the time Morata scored the seventh for Spain, that local man in the Spain jersey stood up to greet the stands, proudly pointing to the number and the name on his back.

By then, he no longer had to ask who Raphael was.

He himself sang, in his own way, and at the top of his lungs, that hit that promises to be 'My big night'.

The other face, obviously, that of the sorrowful Ticos, with the contorted face of

, who could not find comfort in the hugs of his former partner Carvajal.

Immersed in those chords, the Spanish team signed its biggest win in a World Cup, crushing Costa Rica and leaving behind the record of that inconsequential 6-1 against Bulgaria, in France'98, with Luis Enrique as the scorer.

It was also one of the 10 loudest in the history of the competition.

Today it is their children, the footballers of this young and unpredictable group, who are scaring people in the Qatar desert.

Without a doubt, it was his big night.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Spain Soccer Team

• Costa Rican Soccer Team

• football

• Articles Carlos Guisasola