Diego Maradona believes Spain Coach Vicente Del Bosque was wrong to keep faith in Iker Casillas against Chile.
Casillas’ error led to the South Americans’ second goal as the World Cup holders fell to a 2-0 defeat and bowed out of the World Cup at the group stage.
AS reports Maradona as saying the captain should have sat out the match after he also made mistakes in the 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands.
“Casillas should not have played. It was a mistake [by Del Bosque] because he was lacking in confidence,” the 1986 World Cup winner said.
“I think he hesitated for the goals, but all of Spain hesitated.
“Spain have the right to lose because you can’t always win.
“There are players from Spain that have come from winning the Champions League, the Copa del Rey, the League, with an obligation to get 10 points for every game, and then comes the World Cup and having to start with Holland and follow a Chile hungry for glory.”
Maradona also admitted that he was pleased to see Chile win and praised Jorge Sampaoli for moulding the players into a team.
“I wanted Chile to win. I respect Spain a lot, and for me they died standing, their World Cup goes because Holland earned a good win and Chile were even better,” the former Barcelona forward continued.
“I’m glad Chile played as they did. It’s a credit to the players who understood the Coach.
“The players got the message from Sampaoli. He said that they had to fight for every ball.”
