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.
Most papers splashed on their front pages a photo of Spain’s goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas kneeling with head bowed as Dutch players celebrated after ripping apart the Spanish defence.
Leading Madrid sports daily Marca mourned “a historic catastrophe”, dubbing the Netherlands’ performance “a goal-scoring spree of Biblical proportions” against Spain.
With two Euro championships plus the 2010 World Cup title under their belt, expectations for Spain in this competition could not be higher and the response to Friday night’s upset was bitter.
“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.
“Humiliation”, ran the single headline on the front page of general daily El Mundo.
“A ridiculous start,” screamed Barcelona-based daily Sport on its front page.
Barcelona general newspaper El Periodico saw the defending world champions, known as La Roja or the Reds, as “Red with shame”.
Madrid sports daily AS mourned a “Total breakdown” by Spain in the second half as they gave away a 1-0 lead earned through Xabi Alonso’s contentious first-half penalty.
Spanish papers noted bitterly that the scoreline — two goals each by Arjen Robben and Robin Van Persie and one by Stefan de Vrij — was sweet revenge for the Dutch for their 1-0 defeat by Spain in the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.
The Spanish press’s only source of consolation was pointing out that Spain lost its first game in that World Cup, to Switzerland.
Many commentators mourned the ineffective performances of past heros of the Spain squad, such as Casillas, defenders Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique and midfielders Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.
Van Persie made an incredible dive to send a looping header over Casillas to level the game just before half-time.
“We didn’t react well to van Persie’s second goal — they were euphoric and they hammered us,” said Spain coach Vicente del Bosque.
“We did everything wrong in the second half, it was a debacle,” added Spain’s veteran midfielder Xavi.
It was a personal humiliation for Casillas, 33, one of the stars of the team that won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and 2010 World Cup.
“I have to ask forgiveness for the match we played in general and me in particular,” he said. “I was not good enough.”
Even van Persie was shocked by the scale of the defeat.
“It could have been five, oh, yeah, it was five, but it could have been six, seven or eight goals, in my opinion,” the Manchester United star said.
It was the “greatest” night for Dutch football, he added. The walloping of Spain eclipsed more refereeing controversies on the second day of competition.
FIFA officials earlier defended Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura after he awarded Brazil a bitterly-contested penalty in their opening game victory over Croatia.
Referees chief Massimo Busacca insisted Nishimura had been justified in awarding the spot-kick after an alleged foul by Dejan Lovren on Brazilian striker Fred.
“He had a very good position,” said Busacca, referring to a photo of the incident which appeared to show Lovren’s hands making contact with Fred.
“When he saw the hands doing something he makes it (the decision).”(AFP)