The World Cup draw for the 2022 Qatar edition of the tournament the took place on Friday afternoon and many in Spain have been left feeling as though they drew the ‘coco’ – literally coconut, figuratively, the hard one.
That would of course be Germany, perhaps the trickiest team to come from pot two. Their group will be completed by Japan and one of Costa Rica or New Zealand, who will play off for the final spot in June.
German TV station ARD was quick to get the reaction of captain, in a brief comment picked up by Diario AS. On drawing Spain, Manuel Neuer had this to say.
“I have bad memories of Spain, but I don’t think this will happen to us twice.”
Spain eliminated Germany from the 2010 World Cup with a 1-0 victory in the semi-finals, just two years after pipping the Germans to Euro 2008 in the final. Their most recent meeting ended in a 6-0 defeat for Neuer and company.
ARD also managed to grab some words from the national team manager, Hansi Flick, this time shared by Mundo Deportivo.
“It’s an interesting group and it isn’t easy, not just because of Spain. Japan is a team that are always at the World Cup, they have players that play in the Bundesliga and in other European leagues and they have quality. We wanted to play a friendly against them before the World Cup actually, which obviously won’t be played now.”
Flick took over Germany at the end of the 2020-21 season and has overseen 9 matches, winning 8 and drawing just a single friendly against the Netherlands.
