FIFA World Cup 2014: Spanish newspapers slam defending champion's show

Madrid: Spanish newspapers on Saturday bemoaned the “humiliation” and “catastrophe” of world champions Spain’s 5-1 battering by the Netherlands in their opening World Cup match in Brazil. Leading Madrid sports daily Marca mourned “a historic catastrophe.”

“This is not just any old defeat. It is a historic disaster. There is no precedent of this scale in the history of the World Cup,” Marca wrote. The Sport ran a bold headline that read: Ridiculo, slamming the team’s poor performance.

“Humiliation”, ran a headline on the front page of general daily El Mundo. “World disaster,” said leading newspaper El Pais. Leading general newspaper El Pais noted on its front page that Spain had not let in more than one goal in a World Cup or European championship match since 2008. On Friday’s “the collapse was total, it was hell”, it wrote.

Barcelona general newspaper El Periodico saw the defending world champions, known as La Roja or the Reds, as “Red with shame”. “Spain is like the remains of an empire that knows it is near its end,” wrote commentator Joan Maria Batlle in Sport. “Casillas was unrecognisable. Pique and Sergio Ramos were uncoordinated, as if they had never played together,” while Iniesta and Xavi dropped out of sight in the second half, Batlle wrote.