Chile 2 - Spain 0

Photo by Jamie Squire

Spain looked to recover their mojo in Rio de Janeiro as they faced off against Chile. The two teams met in the group stage at South Africa, with Spain winning 2-1 on that occasion. Chile nearly grabbed a first-minute lead, but Eduardo Vargas (pictured, white #11) refused to attack a pass to him inside the box, and his attempt was easily blocked. Gonzalo Jara had a free header on the resulting corner kick, but he missed wide of target. Xabi Alonso nearly gave Spain a lead on a scramble in the box, but Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo came up with a save as he charged out to within one yard of Alonso. Chile found the opener on the counteract. A ball from Alexis Sanchez put Charles Aranguiz on the ball in a two-on-two situation for Chile. Aranguiz drew both defenders and passed to Vargas, who cut back to shake Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas to open up the net and knock home the first goal. A Sanchez free kick with only two minutes left in the half turned into yet another Chilean goal. Casillas elected to punch the ball back into the box rather than parry it to the side, so Aranguiz pounced on the rebound and scored. Chile led 2-0 at halftime.

Spain looked like they wanted to mount a comeback in the early portion of the second period. Andres Iniesta hit a through ball to Diego Costa, but Costa's shot was blocked by Chilean right back Mauricio Isla. Later, Costa attempted a bicycle kick. His shot landed wide of frame, and Sergio Busquets was unable to turn the rebound on frame for Spain. After that, Spain created little until they substituted Santi Cazorla on the pitch. Before then, Chile could have had a third. Vargas pass to Aranguiz, who pulled a shot off frame. Isla was unable to knock the ball in at the back post as he skied the attempt. Cazorla came on and proceeded to curl a bouncing shot that Bravo saved. Later, Bravo did a leaping punch off an Iniesta shot. Spain's last chance was a low-bouncing Cazorla free kick that Bravo parried away. Chile hold on and win 2-0, their first victory over Spain in eleven encounters. With this result, both Spain and Australia are eliminated from the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Chile and Netherlands will play for the Group B title in their next match. Chile need a win whereas Netherlands need only a draw to win the group.

Netherlands IN 6 pts +5
Chile IN 6 pts +4
Australia OUT
Spain OUT

Goals
Chile
Eduardo Vargas 20
Charles Aranguiz 43

Match Reports:
http://soccer.si.com/planet-futbol/2014/06/18/spain-chile-world-cup-commentary-recap-group-b
http://www.espnfc.com/spain/story/1893056/spaniards-stunned-by-2-0-world-cup-loss-to-chile
http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/18/spain-out-world-cup-chile-brazil

Highlights:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/videos/highlights/match=300186498/index.html