Luis Enrique reveals he made mistake taking one unnamed player to World Cup

Luis Enrique has admitted that he made a mistake with his World Cup squad, revealing that he should have left one player at home.

Since winning the World Cup in 2010, things have not gone well for Spain, who followed the curse of defending champions by failing to get out of the group stage four years later.

In Russia they were knocked out by the hosts in the last 16 and last week they once again failed to make the quarter-finals, when they were defeated by Morocco.

Achraf Hakimi panenka'd the winning spot kick against his country of birth, to win the game and make a mockery of the manager's claims his side had taken 1000s of penalties in preparation.

In some ways Luis Enrique's team were lucky to even make it into the knockout stages, as at one point they'd have been out at the group stage when Costa Rica lead against Germany.

With all that said, it was no surprise the former Barcelona boss paid for the defeat to Morocco with his job, ending his second spell in charge after three years.

Now the 52-year-old has admitted that he made a couple of mistakes with his squad, especially with picking one player to go to Qatar.

"I’ll be honest with you. I would make one change. I’m not going to make it public, but I would take one out and bring another," he said whilst chatting to Twitch streamer Ibai Llanos.

"My personal feeling is that there is one other player I would have liked to have taken, and another that, it isn’t that he behaved badly, but I did not see what I expected."

Luis Enrique and the Spain players look on dejected after the loss to Morocco. Image: Alamy

Whilst the former Spain boss wouldn't say which on the players it was that he wished he hadn't taken, there was one player definitely ruled out.

Pablo Sarabia came off the bench with just five minutes of extra time to play in the match, replacing substitute Nico Williams in order to take a penalty.

Sarabia was the first of the three Spanish players to miss but Luis Enrique admitted that he would have given the PSG player more playing time.

"I think Pablo Sarabia deserved more than the five minutes I gave him. Right now I would have even made him the starter," the former Roma boss said.

"I'm not one of those who beats himself up, surely we would have lost the same, but in terms of justice he deserved it."

Sarabia missed the first penalty. Image: Alamy

Spain shouldn't feel too bad about being knocked out of the tournament by Morocco, with Belgium having effectively suffered the same fate earlier in the tournament.

Portugal then joined their fellow European powerhouses by losing to the Africans, ending Cristiano Ronaldo's chances of finally scoring a goal in the knockout rounds of a World Cup.

Next up they face France in the semi-finals on Wednesday night, as they attempt to become the first team from their continent to make it all the way to the final.