'Felt something fishy was going on': Spain boss on VAR call during Japan loss

Spain manager Luis Enrique has said that he was in disbelief after seeing Japan's second goal stand during his side's 2-1 loss against the Asian giants on Thursday.

Japan and Spain qualified from Group E on Thursday as Germany's 4-2 win against Costa Rica wasn't enough to keep the four-time World Champions in the competition.

Spain had taken the lead through Alvaro Morata in the 11th minute and appeared to be in control of the contest for most of the first half. Things changed in the second half as Japan scored two goals in 48th and 51st minutes to claim all three points at the end of the day.

The second goal for the Asian giants courted a lot of controversies as it seemed that the ball had gone out before Kaoru Mitoma assisted Ao Tanaka, who slotted it in.

Speaking after the match, as quoted by Fox Sports, Enrique said that he saw a photo which he feels may have been tampered with and felt that something was fishy when VAR took a lot of time to deliberate about the second goal.

"I have seen a photo that must have been tampered with, it cannot be that this photo is real. It has to be manipulated," said Enrique.

"I felt that something fishy was going on when the VAR took as much time as it did to decide... I have nothing to say.

"Luckily the team only goes into collapse mode once every four years, otherwise I wouldn't be able to cope."

Enrique said that he was not happy at all with the result despite qualifying for the next round.

"I am not happy at all. Yes, we have qualified, I would have liked to be on top of winning this game. This was impossible because in five minutes, Japan scored two goals ... we were out, we were dismantled," Enrique was quoted as saying to a news conference.