Spain's shocking exit: 1056 passes, 1013 touches, 0 chemistry

Spain had all of the ball, but could do very little with it, as Russia sent them packing on penalties[/caption] Spain completed 1056 passes across the 120 minutes of play in their match against Russia, and also managed 1013 touches of the ball in regulation time. This was just the fourth time since 1966 that a team touched the ball over a thousand times in 90 minutes, joining Brazil (vs Italy in 1994), Spain (vs Germany in 2010) and Germany (vs Algeria in 2014). Russia are into the last eight of the World Cup for the first time in 48 years, since a quarterfinal appearance in Mexico in 1970 as Soviet Union. This was their first penalty shootout in World Cups, while for Spain this was their fourth. Only Argentina (five) have had more shootouts. Spain conceded a goal in a World Cup knockout game after a gap of 431 minutes, dating back to a round of 16 defeat against France in 2006, where Zinedine Zidane had scored in injury time to help his team win 3-1. Spain had managed a shutout in each knockout game of their victorious 2010 campaign, including extra-time in the final, and that sequence was broken by Artem Dzyuba’s penalty conversion. Spain have become just the third team after England and Italy to have lost three penalty shootouts in World Cup history. Besides tonight’s defeat against Russia, they had lost to Belgium in 1986 and South Korea in 2002, both in the quarterfinals. In four matches in his first World Cup appearance, David de Gea goes home having effected just one save in the entire tournament. Besides the penalty kicks in the shootout, there were only a total of seven shots on target at his goal through the tournament, and he conceded goals to six of them, including three to Cristiano Ronaldo. Spain have now played the hosts of a World Cup on five occasions, and failed to win a single game. Before Russia, South Korea were the last World Cup hosts to send Spain packing, following a 5-3 shootout victory in 2002. Italy (twice in 1934) and Brazil (1950) are the other two World Cup hosts that Spain have failed to defeat. Source: kwese.espn.com]]>