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Full-back moving back to Spain in £52m dealPlayer reveals he had telephone call with MourinhoMarc Cucurella has admitted that he had not expected to leave Chelsea and that his £52m signing for Real Madrid was done in a day and a half. The Spain left-back also defended himself against the backlash from Barcelona fans, insisting that although he was born and raised in Catalonia and joined the Barça academy aged 14, he could not turn down Real Madrid. “I am very happy,” the 27-year-old said – if maybe not as happy as his wife, Claudia, whose entire family are Madrid supporters.“It was all very fast,” Cucurella said from Spain’s training base in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I got a phone call one morning. My people told me the two clubs had the terms mostly agreed and that I had to decide if I wanted to go there. I had no doubts. It is a big step for me, very important in my career. It all happened in roughly a day and a half. For me, that was the best thing, so it could be all done and I could keep my focus on the World Cup.”The full-back added: “If you had asked me a few months ago, I would probably have told you I didn’t expect to leave Chelsea. I was very happy there, my family too. But in life and football sometimes you need to change and start chapters you did not expect. It’s not easy to leave Chelsea. I lived there for four years and I think I arrived as a young kid. I dreamt of winning trophies and Chelsea gave me the chance. I’m very grateful to what they gave me. But the challenge now is bigger. I can come back to my country and play for Real Madrid which is one of the best clubs in the world. It was not an easy decision but the right one for me and my family.“When this happens it is normally a very long process, and one that does not only depend on me. A lot of things are factored in, and the best thing that could happen was Madrid coming in to sign me so convincingly. It didn’t come out anywhere [in the media] and by the time it did, it was all done. Being at a World Cup while you have other stuff going on in your head it’s not easy. So I am very happy it was all resolved very quick so I can now be 100% focused on the World Cup.”Cucurrella talked to José Mourinho, Madrid’s returning head coach. “We had a chat. I was very happy. Having a manager like Mourinho calling you and saying he can’t wait to work with you gives you a lot of confidence. It was a quick chat, to be honest: I did not want to shift my focus away from Spain duty, but what I liked a lot is that he remembered a lot of things from the game I played against him for Chelsea against Benfica in the Champions League. He insisted that he believes I can add a lot to the team and the dressing room. That just gave me more confidence.”Asked about the anger from Barcelona fans, Cucurella replied: “I have to respect everyone’s opinions. I am very thankful for everything I have experienced in my career and what I learnt in La Masia. But there’s different chapters in life and I thought this was the right step for me. When Madrid comes for you, it is very difficult to say no. I did not doubt that this was the step me and my family wanted to take.“Pressure will be high, but when you move to a club like this what you want is to fight for titles. I am ready for that. My career has not been easy. Now having the chance to play for Real Madrid is a fantastic way to top my career off. [My wife] and her family were always Madrid fans. When she met me, I guess you stop living football as you did – as a fan – and start thinking more about what’s best for you because in the end this is a business and not everything is how you imagined. She will be very happy. Who would have imagined that her partner would be a Madrid player? She has been there in tough moments and now I am happy we can enjoy this together.”

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Midfielder says it is important the European champions have ‘humility’ after disappointing draw against debutantsThe mourning after isn’t always easy, Mikel Merino says – and yes that is mourning with a “u”. “No one died, it’s not a mourning exactly, but at times defeats can feel like that,” the Arsenal midfielder admitted and, although it wasn’t actually a defeat at all, this was one of those times. A 0-0 draw against Cape Verde in their World Cup opener was not the way Spain dreamed it; now, Merino insisted as the selección returned to their Tennessee training camp six long days before they get the chance to make amends, they must deal with it. Each in their own way, but as a family.There they faced a Spanish inquisition too, which was why Merino – the only player not out on the pitch at 11am the morning after a damaging, unexpected draw in Atlanta – was the player chosen to appear in the press room. Seven long desks full of journalists faced him to go with all the noise outside. All part of the game, he called it. “If there’s one thing that’s not good for us, it is for there to be panic,” he said. So here he was, 30 minutes of questions managed with clarity and conviction, offering insight and inspiration. Remember 2010 when Spain lost their first game and won the World Cup? Merino does. He had just turned 14.“Like every game that doesn’t go as you’d like, every player lives with that mourning,” Merino said. “Some like to watch the game back straight away, some like to disconnect and think about other things instead. You have to swallow the disappointment. We have to recover as soon as we can. Luis [de la Fuente] always says that it’s about trying to be better tomorrow, even if you’ve won. We’re always self-critical. Personally, I am not one to send messages [to fans]; I think the best message is the next game, turning it around with a win.”Yet the messages were there. “It is easy to talk of ‘family’ but when things don’t go well, when they are difficult, is when you truly see that ‘family’ – and I see unity, enthusiasm and a will to play well,” Merino said. There was a reflection here on group dynamics: “It is important to have ego; as a footballer, with all the criticism from outside you need it to feel good on the pitch. But you also need the humility to know that this belongs to everyone. Players come to the national team because they are important [at their clubs] and find a new reality where only a few can play.“That’s what the word ‘family’ is. We have to be united, support each other in every moment. You can be annoyed, angry, but that energy has to be positive.”The anger can eat at players and it didn’t take long for Merino’s use of mourning to be picked up. “Maybe I didn’t express myself well,” he replied but, actually, he had expressed himself very well and he would return to the same word. “It was an attempt at a metaphor, a comparison. You’re so competitive that when it doesn’t go well, sometimes you go home and don’t even want to talk to your family. That’s why I say it’s like a mourning. Everyone deals with it differently. I like to face it and watch [games back] as soon as possible but that doesn’t mean it’s the best approach for everyone.“What you want after a bad game is to play again straight away to get the bad taste out of your mouth. The risk [of the expanded World Cup] is you have lots of time to go over it; it’s a mental challenge to deal with that, evade all that and be as free as you can mentally.”Which is not so easy when it is all played out in public. “That’s a reality; it’s part of the business, the reason we earn what we earn, why football is so big, so important: because you’re here to cover it, to create stories through which we explain things to fans,” Merino said, looking across the room. “There are players who like it more, or like it less, but it’s part of the ‘circus’ and we have to accept it and live with it.“Everyone handles these moments their own personal way. I’m one of those that finds it hard to swallow a bad result but with time I’ve realised that it is best to [confront it] and start trying to turn it around as soon as possible. Four, five hours and you realise that this [World Cup] has just started, that there is time to fix it. Then you can focus on the group, on what helps them. Put a hand on the shoulder of whoever is hurt because they didn’t play, or missed a chance. Or know who needs space for that mourning.”Merino admitted that there was relief in seeing Saudi Arabia and Uruguay drawing, leaving him with the feeling that they “start over”. “I like to see the positive side,” he said. “The last world champion started by losing to Saudi Arabia. In 2010 Spain lost the first game and there was lots of criticism and they turned it around; that is an example to follow from people who were idols. I often take inspiration from athletes who have lived my dreams before I did. That generation means so much for this one: we want to emulate them.”A more recent moment of their own serves as an example too. De la Fuente’s spell in charge had begun with a defeat in Scotland, which unleashed ferocious criticism and brought the team together around their coach. A year later, they were European champions. “Against Scotland something similar happened so we have the experience of dealing with it,” Merino said. “This can help the team understand and it’s still early: we have time and room for improvement. We have the humility and confidence, the calmness, to get better, not to go mad because the result wasn’t good.”

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From Sparwasser being the toast of East Germany to Cameroon’s rumbling of Argentina, the finals are littered with upsetsCape Verde’s stunning draw against Spain produced some incredible statistics. The Spaniards had 27 attempts on the goal of the 40-year-old Vozinha and completed 734 passes compared with Cape Verde’s 205. It was an unbelievable rearguard action from a side ranked 61 places below their opponents, who had just named the oldest starting XI of the tournament with an average age north of 31 years.It will no doubt enter World Cup lore as one of the greatest displays of dogged defending the competition has seen. To celebrate, here is a look back at some of those magic moments when underdogs truly had their day.In the only competitive fixture played between the football federations of a Germany divided by the cold war, East Germany embarrassed their hosts in Hamburg. A Jürgen Sparwasser goal ensured both teams progressed to the next group stage, with West Germany going on to become world champions.Cuba arrived in France with a skeleton squad of 15 players, but shocked the world by reaching the quarter-finals. After drawing 3-3 with Romania, they won a second match between the sides 2-1. Incredibly, Cuba’s first-choice goalkeeper, Benito Carvajales, opted not to play in the replay because he had received a lucrative offer to do radio commentary on the match instead. Sweden ended their dream with an 8-0 thumping in the next round.In their first appearance at the tournament since 1958, Northern Ireland faced the hosts, Spain, in Valencia needing a win to progress. Step forward Gerry Armstrong, who smashed home the winner after Luis Arconada could only parry a Billy Hamilton cross. After Mal Donaghy was dismissed, Billy Bingham’s 10 men held on. After a draw against Austria in the second group stage, defeat to France sent Northern Ireland home.When South Africa were banned and South Korea withdrew, North Korea were left with the task of beating Australia to qualify for the finals, setting up a historic moment at Ayresome Park. Pak Doo-ik’s goal defeated a star-studded Italy, sending the Azzurri home to a reception where they were reportedly pelted with tomatoes. North Korea progressed to the quarter-finals and even took a shock 3-0 lead against Eusébio’s Portugal before sliding to a 5-3 defeat.Morocco became the first African side to top a World Cup group and reach the knockout rounds in Mexico. Considered heavy underdogs in a brutal group featuring England, Poland and Portugal, Morocco eked out goalless draws against the first two. They then secured a historic 3-1 triumph over the Portuguese to book a second-round match with West Germany, which they narrowly lost 1-0 to a late Lothar Matthäus free-kick.France entered the tournament as reigning world and European champions, boasting a glittering squad. Senegal, who gained independence from France in 1960, were making their World Cup debut and featured a squad almost entirely based in the French leagues. Papa Bouba Diop scored the only goal after 30 minutes. Senegal marched all the way to the quarter-finals, while the French squad spectacularly imploded, finishing bottom of the group without scoring a goal.Goals from Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi ensured Algeria became the first African side to beat a European team at a World Cup finals. Unfortunately, because final group matches were not played simultaneously, West Germany and Austria were later able to manufacture a mutually beneficial 1-0 German win in the “Disgrace of Gijón” that sent both European teams through at Algeria’s expense, despite them also beating Chile.Legend has it that when the score was transmitted back to newspapers in London from Brazil, editors assumed the score was a transcription error. It wasn’t. The Haiti-born forward Joe Gaetjens scored the only goal for an American team made up mostly of part-timers. England’s first foray into the World Cup ended in humiliation and they went home chastened after defeat to Spain.Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.The upset to end all upsets. It wasn’t just that Argentina were world champions. It wasn’t just that expectations of African sides were low at the time. It wasn’t just that it was Cameroon’s fourth match at a World Cup finals. It was that Cameroon were already down to 10 men when François Omam-Biyik netted and were reduced to nine men after Benjamin Massing took a somewhat agricultural approach to defending the lead. There was nothing Diego Maradona could do about it.

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Keeper named player of the match against Euro winners‘I have worked my whole life for this moment,’ he saysVozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who was named player of the match after making seven saves in his side’s 0-0 draw against Spain, was in tears at full time. The mother of Cape Verde’s World Cup hero was not there to see history made because she could not afford the visa to the US.The goalkeeper described the game as the moment he had been working towards his “entire life” and said he wished he could have shared the moment with his late grandparents and his mother.In January the US government added Cape Verde to the list of countries whose citizens have to post a returnable bond of up to $15,000 (£11,200) before travelling to the US, on top of the visa fee. As a result, Vozinha’s mother was unable to complete her application. Vozinha has been Cape Verde’s No 1 for 13 years.“I cried because I grew up with my grandparents and unfortunately they were not here; they died a few years ago,” he said. “They were everything for me, for my life. I also cried because my mum didn’t manage to be here because of the visa. Because of the money we had to pay for the visa, we didn’t manage to [get it done] on time. I would like her to be here, but I’m also very happy.“I have worked my whole life for this moment. I’m 40 years old. I started playing football professionally when I was 25, in 2012. I thought about leaving but I continued because of this dream. This is for everyone. I was named man of the match but this is for all of my teammates because without them nothing would be possible. I will continue to work for Cape Verde and for the people.Spain, unsurprisingly, had the majority of possession but struggled to break down a well organised Cape Verde defence. Ferran Torres hit the bar in the European champions’ best chance. Everything else that was on target Vozinha stopped.“Our best weapon is our unity. The way we treat our family is our best strength. Everyone thought we came here just to enjoy the World Cup, but we know we have a team that deserves respect. It’s our first time, but we are here to compete and to fight for our country. We will play all the games with our strategy and our coach’s tactics. We will try to do better than today’s game. I hope we can win some games and, who knows, maybe go through to the next round. I am very happy and proud of all our players.”The Cape Verde head coach, Bubista, said: “Vozinha is overwhelmed by the emotion. He has made a huge effort to be here, and those were tears of resilience. I don’t like to talk about individuals, but he played so well. The team was calm and that helped to keep him calm.“This means everything for the country. We’ve always said that we want the whole world to see how our team plays. We showed courage, playing in a way that is a metaphor for our country: with resilience and overcoming obstacles.”

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Wow, just wow. At 1.57pm, Atlanta time, 3,291 miles from home, the final whistle went on Cape Verde’s first World Cup game, and they had only gone and done it and what they had done was madness – they had only gone and held the favourites. Bubista had said that he wanted the world to see who and what they are and, boy, did they see. Cape Verde’s coach had insisted that getting here was was more than football – it was music, it was culture, it was everything. So what was this? This was wonderful. What a moment and what a noise greeted the moment when the impossible had become real.An Atlantic archipelago of 600,000 people. A Shamrock Rovers centre-back from Crumlin, Dublin, who had been found on LinkedIn. A goalkeeper from Portugal’s second division, another Josimar leaving his mark on the history of this competition and a million minds, to be talked about for generations. All of them. They had come to the US, faced Spain, and resisted them, their bodies on the line and their hearts on their sleeves. Even the introduction of Lamine Yamal, the teenage icon cast as Spain’s saviour couldn’t defeat them.Cape Verde got a point from Atlanta but they got a whole, whole lot more. They might have literally got more. As this game entered the final, dramatic, tense minutes with the score at 0-0, it was they, not Spain, who actually got the best chances. Amazingly on 90 minutes Diney Borges leapt inside the Spain area, rising to meet a header and his moment of immortality only for Unai Simón to save. Three minutes later Ryan Mendes had his opportunity too. Dani Olmo had to block from Kevin Pina too, an incredible story on the edge of getting even more absurd. But this will live for ever.And if those were huge moments, so too was the astonishing block from Pico Lopes, diving in on 88 minutes to deny Olmo. Lopes, born in Dublin, the man whose coach contacted him on LinkedIn and who had ignored the first message – it was in a language he doesn’t understand and he assumed it was spam – has made history. Behind Lopes, 40-year-old Josimar “Vozinha” Dias had too. They all had; what heroes they have become. A starting XI that plays in eight different leagues, none of them the elite, an entire 26, had held off Spain. Nothing does stories like football, like the World Cup.Spain had 24 shots and couldn’t find a way through, but this wasn’t fluke, far from it. Bubista’s players had worked for it, deserved it from the very start when that countdown to kick-off came and, a minute and six seconds later than scheduled, Dailon Livramento got Cape Verde’s first-ever touch at a World Cup.And so it began, an act of rebellion and resistance. Bubista has said his team would have the courage to attack but also that they would have to defend well and that was the priority here, naturally enough. Spain took possession but didn’t really find a way to take advantage. Sitting on the bench behind Luis de la Fuente were Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, the men – well, boy in the latter’s case – who had made them so different at the Euros. Both are on their way back from injury and without them it is not just that the selección lack exceptional players, it is that their identity shifts.For Spain, there wasn’t much happening in truth, at least not to begin with. It took 14 minutes for Pedri to have their first shot, then Pau Cubarsí struck wide, and that was pretty much that. When the first quarter ended with fans whistling the time-out-disguised-as-a-cooling-break in an air-conditioned stadium that has a roof, they had not troubled Cape Verde. As the players gathered in a circle around De la Fuente, the coach’s message was clear, hand thrusting in a cutting motion.When they came back for the second quarter, it was Ryan Mendes who had the first notable moment, lifting the ball over Gavi and seeing his shot blocked by Marc Cucurella. There was also a moment when Livramento shot from halfway. And Jovane Cabral curled wide. But Spain did improve and as the half came towards a close the chances appeared. Which was when Vozinha did, too. The first of a series of superb saves came from Mikel Oyarzabal’s header after Ferran Torres hit the bar.That had begun, like much of what Spain did, from Cucurella getting in behind. And when he did so again soon after, he pulled back for Torres to strike a first-time shot. Vozinha saved that too, and again when Aymeric Laporte headed towards the far post just before the break. Spain came back out with the appearance of more intent, more aggression. Pedri was back at the heart of it. The shot count rose, at the feet of Fabián Ruiz especially. Yet it still wasn’t quite happening, and time was getting on.And on, and on. And, to the surprise of everyone here, while Spain’s subs warmed up, there were still no changes. They reached the end of the third quarter before Lamine Yamal appeared, the second water break bringing instructions and the introduction of the teenager. Mikel Merino came with him. Lamine Yamal’s introduction changed everything, the whole mood, the noise. Well, almost everything. It didn’t change history, not this time. Cape Verde did that and it was music.

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There have never been more brilliant footballers in the world than there are now – one reason it’s so hard to pick a winner of this competition. Knockout ties often come down to which individual delivers – or fails to deliver – at the crucial moment and, with so many countries boasting numerous individuals able to turn a game and humans being inherently unreliable, we can’t know which of them will be grooved – or heartbreakingly, hilariously inept – when the time comes.But it remains the case that Spain, though not obvious champions, are the hardest team to beat. Things have changed since they won three consecutive competitions 2008-12 – you can’t dominate possession to the same absurd extent once you no longer have Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta – club’s football’s greatest midfield – plus Xabi Alonso, plus another midfielder or two in lieu of strikers.Yet Rodri and Pedri are pretty handy replacements and, though the control they bring isn’t the same, it’s been replaced with the thrust their champion sides lacked. Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams – both expected to be absent today, a precautionary move as they recover from injury – give them a threat in behind and on the outside, while Mikel Oyarzabal, likely to play in between them, is in sensational form at both club and international level.All of which makes this a tricky – but inspiring – assignment for Cape Verde, making their tournament debut. They qualified top of their group, finishing above a Cameroon side featuring Bryan Mbeumo and Carlos Baleba among others, with only one player – Villarreal defender Logan Costa – playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues. This tells us they’re a settled, organised side and, while they’re better at the back than up front, they’ll be a threat on the counter. As Dailon Livramento, their star attacker said, “We got ourselves into the World Cup, now it’s time to have fun together.”That attitude makes them a danger even if a comfortable Spain win remains the likeliest outcome here. When, in years to come, we look back on this competition, one of its eternal, affirming memories will be Curaçao’s goal against Germany and Cape Verde are more than capable of delivering us another moment of emotional intensity the like of which only World Cup football can. And really, that’s why we’re here: we can worry about who wins the thing later.Kick-off: 3pm local, 5pm BST, 12p EDT, 2am AEST.

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Squad has evolved since 2024 but the European champions are happy to embrace the tag of tournament favouritesSpain knew, now everyone else does too. It was almost 1.30am on 15 July 2024 when Álvaro Morata, the captain who had lifted the Henry Delaunay trophy, headed down the slope and towards the team bus parked beneath the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. A European champion now, he came with a big black boombox, a small blue Euro 2024 wash bag, a mischievous look and a knowing grin. “Seems I have an eye for a player,” he said.Seems he did. A month earlier, when the mood was not so optimistic, Morata had been asked if Spain really had any world-class footballers, the kind that could win the Ballon d’Or and thus a major trophy. “Yes,” he replied and he had started naming them: Rodri, Pedri, Nico Williams, Lamine Yamal. Now, medal in his pocket, he left the naming to them. “You choose one,” he said. “Any one.” There were candidates everywhere. They were there in Berlin and, although Morata is no longer around, they are there in Chattanooga too.At Spain’s World Cup training base, over a little level crossing and through some woods, there is confidence. But then there always was. Players too, despite the external doubts that were dealt with in Germany. “All Rodri lacks is marketing,” Morata had insisted before the Euros and a few months later Rodri won the Ballon d’Or his captain believed he deserved before. The question may not be whether Lamine Yamal will follow but how often. Luis Enrique adds “Potter” to Pedri’s name. Fabián Ruiz has won two Champions Leagues in a row. If no one talks about Mikel Oyarzabal, especially not Mikel Oyarzabal, they should. And David Raya and Joan García were the season’s best keepers in England and Spain – and they’re the ones who won’t play.“Why can’t Spain win the World Cup?” the coach, Luis de la Fuente, says. Usually when the word favourite comes out, footballers run the other way. Spain’s players have embraced it. There are two reasons for that: one, because that’s just other people talking; and, two, because why not? “I don’t think we were favourites at the Euros and we won it,” Rodri says.Coming into the Euros, Spain’s players had felt the confidence they had on the inside and the confidence others did not have on the outside. In Oyarzabal’s words: “Maybe there was no crack, but look at it: we might not have had ‘names’ but we were convinced we had players who were top three in the world. And we were clear that while there were teams with very good individuals, as a group we were stronger. There were none like us. We heard the things people said, the fact they didn’t trust in us … and then people started climbing on board.”Everyone is fully on board now. Spain’s Euros was possibly the best there has been: no champion had won every game before, and they had defeated Croatia, Italy, Germany, France and England en route. They are unbeaten in 30 games. And if that number needs an asterisk – they were defeated on penalties in the 2025 Nations League final – it is unmatched. Here’s another number: asked to put a figure on how Spain feel on the eve of the first match in Atlanta, Mikel Merino went for 100%.Those numbers convince others; for Spain’s players, it comes more as confirmation. They’ve changed their minds, not us.Just before Spain’s squad left Las Rozas bound for the US, Oyarzabal was asked what differences he sees between this team now and the one that won the Euros. “Not much,” he replied. The striker does a lovely line in deadpan but there is something in that.There are differences, of course. One stands out particularly, its impact intangible and yet to be tested. Eight players have gone and they include Morata and Dani Carvajal. At Euro 2024 there was a kind of captaincy triumvirate, a leadership that was shared and complementary: Morata was empathy, humanity; Carvajal was competitiveness and character; Rodri was football. Something has been lost there and the Manchester City midfielder admits that he too will miss them.“Mora[ta], me, Carva[jal]: we had a great group, now I’m the only one left,” he says. “I’ll try to absorb what I learned from them. And others emerge [as leaders]: Unai [Simón], Oyarzabal, Ferran [Torres]. I don’t think it will change me a lot; I played that role before. But wearing the armband is a different story.”Yet there may be an argument that Spain are stronger than at Euro 2024. Rodri’s season has been built towards this World Cup after his knee injury and now, he says, he could not be better. Lamine Yamal, 16 in Germany, is two years older. After an injury of his own, the winger admitting “I was praying it was nothing” and missing Spain’s preparatory games, he is ready. Merino is ready too. Only Williams’ fitness is a concern. Oyarzabal has scored 13 in 11 games; he has also scored in every final he has played. Above all, though, there is a stability, an assuredness, a continuity.“The team is more or less the same, the same group,” Oyarzabal says. “Luis has coached almost all of us at youth level. If you’re no good on the pitch, it doesn’t mean much but it’s important that it’s a healthy, respectful group, that it’s nice to be here, good day to day. At the Euros, when no one said we were favourites, we won it. We’re the same as we were then: calm, confident.”And they are good on the pitch, just as they always were. Which doesn’t mean they will win but does mean they believe they can. The change is more about perception than players.Rodri makes the point that even the Spain team that won three tournaments in a row between 2008 and 2012 were “unknown” once, that they had to lift their first trophy to become “names”. Sometimes recognition is not the same as reality; this team too have their trophy, but they knew they could play. “We’re the same: we have the same excitement, the same belief, the same confidence, the same group, the same good atmosphere,” Merino says. “Maybe the perception from outside has changed but inside nothing has changed at all.”“The future is theirs,” De la Fuente insisted as his captain bounded past in Berlin. “I just hope they get me tickets to see it,” Morata said.