World Cup 2018: Spain re-find their mojo to show why they remain one of the best

It wasn't the exact result they wanted but after a nightmare week Spain showed they should still be one of the favourites at the tournament

Once the dust had settled in Sochi, Gerard Pique inadvertently showed that something else had settled.

“Matches go a certain way and you have to face up to it,” the centre-half said. “To see yourself in the first game of a World Cup go behind to a penalty after two minutes, you have to have a good feeling after how the game went.”

And this is the big thing: they also have to have a good feeling… after how the week went.

Despite what should have been the immense disruption of sacking manager Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the tournament, and despite ultimately failing to win three points due to Cristiano Ronaldo’s three goals, Spain at the very least showed that they weren’t really affected by that stunning story much at all. That it was barely mentioned in fact said it all.

Spain instead showed immense resolve, overcoming that as well as a poor start, to then show their quality by regularly putting on an exhibition of exquisite football.

It is why, now the dust has settled on Ronaldo’s free-kick, they shouldn’t be too down about the result either.

Pique may have come across a little bitter when he spoke of how the Real Madrid star “has a habit of throwing himself to the ground” after the opening penalty, and then mentioning how Portugal only had three shots on target and scored all three - especially given the way the their counter-attacking caused Spain such panic for most of the first half - but there was a fair point there, too.

Because, when you really lay it out, the Spanish had put together some genuinely exquisite spells of football in long stretches when they were the game’s better team - by far - and really only cost because of a penalty, a freak error and then a brilliant free-kick… and all of these involving one of the two greatest players in the world.

That does bode well, to add to the fact that they never showed any signs of collapsing with set-backs in the way pre-2008 Spanish sides might have.

Costa was one of many bright spots for La Roja (Getty Images)

The core is still there. The quality is still there, and that Lopetegui isn’t there now seems even less relevant.

If they can reproduce some of the football here, especially that in the 15-minute spell after Diego Costa’s second goal, then they still have as good a chance of winning this World Cup as before the chaos of the last week. And the positive is that when you have Isco, David Silva and Andres Iniesta on the pitch - and that even before we get to talents like Sergio Busquets and Thiago Alcantara - it makes some of that intricate football inevitable.

There was even the way Costa seemed to completely arrive in this jersey, as he offered the different solutions he has always been supposed to, when Spain’s more fluid approach isn’t quite proving effecting. Those solutions of course involve the very different qualities of tenacity, fight and pure force; the club in the middle of so many katanas.

Costa provided a focal point often lacking for the Spanish (Getty)

It’s just that this being Spain - even post-2008 Spain - a different problem presents itself: the mindset of David de Gea.

He was already a talking point in Spain because of a needless public row with the prime-minister, something he referred to as “issues beyond the game”, and then naturally dominated all conversation afterwards.

He made the kind of calamitous error that anyone who watches him for Manchester United would say is uncharacteristic, except it so quickly followed a similar mistake in a friendly against Switzerland.

"Better to make it today than in Russia”, he had said, only to make it in Russia.

De Gea's mindset remains a concern (Getty)

There is another irony there. Spain’s main weakness appears to be susceptibility to surging counters, potentially leaving their goalkeeper vulnerable to one-on-ones… but that is precisely what De Gea is normally so supreme at dealing with, maybe the best in the world on them.

It’s not a time then for a crisis of confidence, even though he and Pique insisted that really wasn’t the case. De Gea was almost defiant after the game, while admitting he felt the need to publicly apologise.

“I haven’t killed anyone, either. I’m happy with the national team.

“I spoke with Pedro Sanchez, I apologised, and he accepted it. I said it’s fair that I should apologise publicly. I don’t see much that they support me from Spain. My own criticism is bad enough. I would have liked that they defend me more in a difficult moment in my life, with an issue from outside the game. I am happy with the support from the manager and the lads. If we change a player every time he makes a mistake… I’m relaxed.”

If that is the case, all the better, and it means Spain should be all the more relaxed - especially about the display.

It may not have turned out how they wanted, but it could have been so much worse, as they instead showed they are still one of the best sides in this World Cup.