• Chronicle A decaffeinated Spain ties with Germany and leaves the round of 16 a point away

  • Classification.

    This is Group E

The day had started with a

message on Instagram from Luis Enrique

.

He would go out riding a bicycle with his physical trainer, Lorenzo del Pozo.

And, addressing the camera, he said: "Today is a special day. Not only because we play against Germany, but because

my daughter Xana would have turned 13.

My love, wherever you are, I love you."

Xana, her youngest daughter, passed away on August 29, 2019

, less than six months after her father had to urgently return to Spain from Malta.

A call from her wife the night before had changed her life forever.

Until yesterday Luis Enrique had never spoken publicly about this issue

.

And at night, after drawing against Germany, a journalist from that country asked him about his message on social networks in the morning.

"It's been a special day for me and my family. It's been a long time.

It's obvious that we don't have our daughter, but we try to live it naturally

, remembering her, laughing, thinking about how she would act in many of the things that happen to us in day to day. This is how life works, they are not only beautiful things, but it also consists of managing those moments", explained the coach with an overwhelming, admirable naturalness.

Xana, who comes to be a fairy in Asturian mythology

, he was 9 years old when he passed away due to illness.

It was difficult for those present in the Al Bayt press room to concentrate after that sentence.

Fortunately, everything related to the game itself had been said before.

Because everything had started in a very striking image.

When the referee whistled for the end of the game, Luis Enrique started to walk towards the other half of the field, but

Hansi Flick

, the Germany coach, got in his way.

They both gave each other a long hug, even repeated, and they smiled at each other the whole time.

"It's great to talk to him.

As a coach he is a very good guy, it is a great joy to see him, he is a great person.

What we have talked about is private, maybe I will say it in the future," the German joked afterwards.

When the Asturian was finally able to get

rid of

from Flick, he continued to where his players were greeting the rival.

Both teams had just starred in a very intense game, with brutal physical exhaustion, and the oxygen was not very much for the work of invigorating the brain.

But that did not matter to Luis Enrique.

Luis Enrique greets Flick at the end of the match. EFE

First he took

Koke

by band and began to explain something to him.

After the Atlético midfielder, it was

Sergio Busquets

' turn , who looked at him with a face that varied between resignation and attention.

Perhaps it was not the moment, but Luis Enrique had to tell him something very important and he could not wait.

The coach did not wait for today to start correcting what he understands as mistakes.

Afterwards he was reasonably satisfied.

«When you have the possibility of beating Germany close, you feel a little sad.

But seeing the position we have right now in the standings, being first and depending on ourselves, it's good news after the first two games.

We lacked finesse and freshness throughout the game.

When we managed to get ahead, we followed the panic mode of Germany, and there we have not been precise and calm to take the game where we want.

We have lacked a bit of ground, of tranquility.

Transitions cost us more.

It's a shame, but you have to be optimistic, because we are first in the group of death, in the group that, in the draw, people said: 'oohhhhh' when it came out.

Nothing, to think about Japan and to try to win the game», he said.

«It has been a high-level game.

We knew what to expect.

Spain is a team that plays football very well and this result will give us a little more morale

.

I liked the mentality of the team.

I said yesterday that Spain is a great team, with a mix of young and experienced players.

I like his style of play, he is very good football.

They started well, but we managed to recover and respond.

We took control at times, we defended well, which is not easy, but we had a rival with many qualities and quality in front of us.

It is very difficult to defend this team and we have achieved it, "said Hans Flick, a lover of the team, which yesterday he left with fewer things:" It is a fair result, "he concluded.

"We are a bit disappointed, but we could have lost, so yes, it's fair," Luis Enrique conceded.

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