MADRID: Spanish newspapers and football fans yesterday mourned the end of an era for their national team after the world and European champions crashed out of the World Cup in a humiliating 2-0 beating by Chile.
Photographs of midfielder Andres Iniesta with his head in his hands made the front pages of the press, sharing the space in some cases with coverage of the swearing in of Spain’s new king, Felipe VI.
“The end... A terrible end to the most glorious era”, ran the headline in leading Madrid sports daily Marca. “Goodbye to the golden years.”
“It was beautiful while it lasted,” ran the headline on another sporting daily, AS.
AS printed photographs recalling Spain’s past three triumphs: the 2008 and 2012 Euro championships and the 2010 World Cup.
“Don’t apologise,” it said. “We owe you a lot.”
The analysis inside the paper was stern, however.
“The end was horrible,” wrote AS commentator Juanma Trueba, who said Spain’s failure was directly linked to the flagging fortunes in recent seasons of Barcelona.
Attention in Spain was yesterday focussed largely on the swearing-in of Felipe after his father Juan Carlos’s abdication.
Leading general newspaper El Pais led with the royal succession on its front page, with a smaller item below titled “Spain’s debacle in the World Cup”.
“They have abdicated,” headlined Barcelona sports daily Mundo Deportivo in a bitter pun above a photo of dejected Spain players with their heads bowed.
Grim-faced fans watching the defeat in a Madrid bar voiced sadness and resignation.
“What do I feel? Sorrow, sorrow, nothing more. But it’s normal. We did not play well,” said 51-year-old sales manager Manuel Lista.
“Spain are not in good shape and that’s it. I love football and I saw it coming.”
“We were supposed to be the best, the champions of the world,” said another fan, Juan Tamayo, after watching the match on a giant screen outside Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium.
“They have humiliated us as a country.” AFP