The defending World Cup champions are out of the World Cup before the group stage is even over after going down 2-0 to a wonderful Chile side in the Maracana! meaning, they have no hope of progressing from Group B.
Vicente del Bosque had led Spain to glory at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 but, following his side's 5-1 humbling against Netherlands on Friday, a reaction was required to avert a group-stage exit.
They had produced such a reaction four years ago when bouncing back from a defeat in their opener to Switzerland, but La Furia Roja appeared for the most part to be a pale imitation of their 2010 vintage.
On 20 minutes, Chile broke the deadlock, carving the Spain defence open as Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sanchez and Charles Aranguiz combined before setting up Eduardo Vargas to skip around Iker Casillas and finish.
Just before half-time, Spain's fate worsened as Casillas failed to deal with a Sanchez free kick, allowing Aranguiz to poke home a second.
Spain injected more urgency into their game at the start of the second half, and Sergio Busquets spurned a golden opportunity to bring his side back into the game, but they could never exercise the kind of control that had been the hallmark of their success in recent years.
Spain enjoyed a series of chances in the dying minutes but could not find a way past Claudio Bravo.
Spain and Australia have both failed to register a point from their opening two fixtures and have no chance of progress. Chile and Netherlands will meet in Sao Paulo on Monday to determine who will advance as group winners.
0 Comment:
Post a Comment