Spain aim to spoil plots of Morocco’s ‘avocado head’

Spain will be favourites to beat Morocco in the World Cup last 16 on Tuesday but the teams' experiences in the group phase were a reminder of the unpredictability of tournament football.

Spain, who humbled Costa Rica 7-0 in their opening game, finished second in Group E behind Japan while Morocco defied the odds to win Group F ahead of Croatia and Belgium.

The Spanish lost their last group match to Japan and face a difficult test from a Moroccan side growing in confidence under coach Walid Regragui.

Ultimately, Germany did Spain a favour by beating Costa Rica but Rodri Hernandez admitted those three difficult minutes unnecessarily complicated their own match before they sealed progress to the last 16.

"Now a new competition is beginning. There is always analysis on what we can improve on, even after the games when we've played well," Rodri told reporters ahead of Tuesday's game against Morocco.

"The other day there weren't that many things to improve on because it was a 10-minute collapse and this is what we have to do better. We've been warned that this cannot happen again.

"The coach has been clear, the players have assumed responsibility and we're training happily, wanting to be in the next round and knowing that we can get there."

After Morocco had beaten Canada 2-1 to reach the last 16 for only the second time and first since 1986, FIFA posted a photo of Regragui holding an avocado with a soccer ball inside it and pointing his finger at his head in a defiant message to his critics.

The goal they conceded to Canada was their first in six matches under Regragui and during the victory celebrations, the players gathered around the coach touching his head.

"They like to hit me on the head. Perhaps this will be lucky omen for them," Regragui told reporters.

Morocco are happy to sit back and look to punish opponents on the counter-attack.

Spain drew 1-1 with Germany following their rout of Costa Rica and after the loss to Japan coach Luis Enrique was critical of his team.

Luis Enrique's Tiki-Taka style of play relies on the Barcelona midfield trio of Sergio Busquets, Pedri and Gavi.

"Spain are a top five team and always come to the World Cup to win. But our coach has also taught us to have a winning mentality; it doesn't matter who we are up against. We are going to try to play our way and try to beat them," said Achraf Hakimi.

"We finished first in the group and I think we deserve a little respect. I think that Spain knows that and that they have to be a little afraid of us. And why can't we pull off a surprise again?", he wondered out loud.