2010 World cup winners Spain, kicked off their Qatar 2022 campaign with a 7-0 thumping of Costa Rica. The score line is Spain’s biggest-ever FIFA World Cup win.
Ferran Torres with a brace was joined by 5 other players on the score sheet in the second Group E game at Al Thumama Stadium.
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Dani Olmo started the goal spree when he dinked the ball over Keylor Navas after 10 minutes, having shown wonderful close control to fashion the shooting position. Marco Asensio doubled the lead soon after, spinning the ball into the far corner from Jordi Alba’s pinpoint cross.
Torres joined the part with a penalty on the half-hour mark before adding a second early in the second half after capitalising on some confusion between Navas and Bryan Oviedo.
Gavi then made it five with a stunning strike, but it didn’t end there as stoppage-time efforts from Carlos Soler and Alvaro Morata made it 6 and 7 respectively.
Spain went top of the group, ahead of Japan, who pulled off the second upset of the competition by beating Germany 2-1 at Khalifa International Stadium earlier in the day.
So at the end of the first round of matches, Spain was top with 3 points, followed by Japan with 3 points, Germany and Costa Rica stay 3rd and 4th respectively with no points.
There have only six more resounding World Cup wins than Spain’s demolition of Costa Rica. There have been three 8-0s, two 9-0s and the biggest victory of all: Hungary’s 10-0 trouncing of El Salvador in 1982.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur