Mauricio Pochettino has described the moment the Spanish FA saw they were on verge of being knocked out of the World Cup, during a rollercoaster final round of games in Group E.
The claim is not being taken seriously in Spain especially in view of the controversial way the team went behind against Japan and their desperate - albeit failed - attempts to get back into the game.
We are now well into this year s World Cup with the group stage of the officially wrapped up. There have been plenty of thrills and spills so far at the controversial tournament in the Middle East.
Aymeric Laporte has revealed he doesn t like watching football matches - and does not even know what time his club games kick-off. The Man City star is part of Spain s World Cup bid.
The final round of the World Cup group stage begins on Tuesday - and below, Sportsmail takes you through the state-of-play in all eight groups below as sides battle to reach the last 16.