Spain to appoint new coach in 48 hours and Luis Enrique to 'resign' after Morocco loss

Spain are expected to appoint a new head coach in the next 48 hours as Luis Enrique prepares to step down. The 52-year-old tactician saw his side ruthlessly kicked out of the World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday after a heartbreaking last-16 penalty shootout loss to Morocco in Doha after 120 minutes of heart-pounding action.

But in the end, Spain's disappointing campaign in Qatar will be seen as a failure, especially after changing their style by winning their opening group game 7-0 against Costa Rica.

At the time, La Roja were among the favorites following the incredible performance which demonstrated their exceptional technical quality and fluidity in attack. That now seems like a distant memory after their failure to score against Morocco, who are now a worthy quarter-finalist.

The one-sided beating turned out to be Spain's only win of the tournament after a draw with Germany and later a 2-1 loss to Japan in Group E - a result that saw them qualify in second place.

Now a Spanish outlet is reporting that Enrique is set to quit his job after guiding La Roja to the semi-finals of Euro 2020.

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Enrique took the exit from Spain personally and now it seems the time has come for some fresh ideas after a disappointing performance in the Middle East.

Luis de la Fuente, who is the current manager of the Spain U21 team, is the favorite to replace Enrique if he steps down.

The 61-year-old could even be announced as La Roja's new boss in the coming days if Enrique's departure is indeed confirmed.

Spain failed to score a single kick in the shootout after Pablo Sarabia, Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets all puffed their lines.

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Sarabia shook the post before Sevilla keeper Yassine Bounou prevented Soler and Busquets from taking penalties with two fine saves.

Enrique has since revealed he told his players to practice over 1,000 penalties before arriving in Qatar for the World Cup, but the pressure proved too much on the biggest stage of them all.

He told reporters: "I guess they've done their homework. More than a year ago, in one of the Spanish camps, I told them they had to come here with at least minus 1,000 penalties taken. If you wait until you get here to practice penalties... [that won't be enough].

"It's a moment of maximum tension, a moment to show your composure and that you can take the penalty the way you have decided, if you have trained it a thousand times. That says a lot about each player.

"It's trainable, manageable, the way you deal with tension. It's less and less luck - goalkeepers have more influence.

"We have a very good goalkeeper, any of the three can do very well in this situation. Every time we finish training I see a lot of players taking shots on goal."

Enrique was first appointed Spain head coach in July 2018 before stepping down for personal reasons a year later before finally joining the La Roja side four months later in November 2019 .

Morocco, winners of Spain, will face Portugal in the quarter-finals on Saturday for a place in the last four.