After getting the tournament off to a shaky start, Spain finished the group stages on top, and will now go through to play in an "Iberian derby" with neighbours Portugal, in yet another intriguing all-European encounter. Spain beat 10-man Chile, 2-1 and Switzerland's inability to score saw them exit the competition, after their shock start to the tournament. Spain, like many of the "heavyweights" suffered from something like first (or second, in England's case) match nerves, but a win against Honduras and the victory over Chile meant that they were, in the end, comfortably through to the next round. Chile, who had been sitting pretty at the top of the group, since the opening Group H games, saw themselves slip to second-place setting up a potentially tricky tie against South American neighbours - Brazil. Life will be made a bit harder for Chile who will be without 3 players, who were suspended as a result of the cards they picked up in the game against Spain.
Spain began well with Fernando Torres again at the forefront of all the early chances. However, as stated before, he is still not fully fit, there's clearly something missing there as a fit Torres would surely have put those chances away. Again, he went without scoring in this game after failing to be clinical with the opportunities that were presented to him.
Chile soon upped the pressure though, and it was they who had the most possession and were cutting the Spanish defence open with some good through balls. Mark Gonzalez, who had got the winner against Switzerland, had a great chance to double his goals in the tournament after some nice work by Valdivia and Beausejour, but he failed to control it and the chance went missing.
Chile were rampaging about all over the pitch - they were putting so much energy into their movement, trying to get the ball fizzing about quickly all over the pitch and running around everywhere like madmen - I think it kind of confused the Spanish for a little while, as they tried to figure out how to get at this Chilean team who were doing really well at keeping the ball. But although Chile were trying to overtake the Spanish on every corner of the pitch, they were also losing their discipline and the first half saw 3 Chilean players getting booked with tackles flying in all over the pitch...they weren't pretty ones either. Waldo Ponce and Gary Medel were both booked and will miss the game against Brazil, which is a shame, because Ponce in particular contributes well to the Chilean team.
The first goal therefore came against the run of play for Spain, and due to a bizarre decision by Bravo, who had previously not let in any goals until last night. Torres had got the ball down on the left hand side, and he didn't look particularly threatening and it seemed as though he would take it down to the corner flag anyway. But, Bravo clearly not believing his defenders would be able to deal with Torres came rushing out of his goalkeeping area, right up to the 40 yard line and cleared the ball away from the oncoming Torres, only to pass it to David Villa, who took a speculative shot from 40 yards away and saw it bounce into the deserted net. A poor performance from the keeper, who should have just waited instead of coming out, or made sure he kicked it out of play or to a Chilean player because that cost them a goal, that hadn't looked likely to be scored until that moment. It was a great, if not, lucky goal for Barca's new front-man, and adds to his tally of 3 world cup goals in this tournament.
From that moment onwards, Chile tried to get a goal to level things up, going forwards and inevitably leaving themselves vulnerable at the back. Beausejour went closest for Chile after Spain had taken the lead, when he was one-on-one with Casillas, but a good recovering block by Pique saw the ball safely out of harm's way. But soon, Spain had taken control of the game after scoring their second goal, courtesy of Iniesta, who had been left out of the last game due to injury. Villa, Torres and Iniesta formed a triangle of play, working it up to the Chilean box, before Iniesta took a strike which landed in the far corner. It was a stylish goal from some stylish play and that was where we saw flashes of the Spain side, we expected to see right from the beginning of the tournament.
However, in the build-up to that goal Torres has been tripped by the already yellow-carded Estrada, who then received another yellow before getting sent off. It sparked a lot of confusion after the goal had been scored but replays showed that it was as an accidental trip-up and that Estrada hadn't even seen Torres, as he was fully focused on the ball. The referee had not viewed the incident himself either as he was looking at the ball too, but he went on the reaction of Torres and his teammates, most of whom had gathered around the ref, demanding Estrada to be sent off. It was a poor decision, reminiscent of Stephane Lannoy's one against Kaka, and will mean that Estrada will also miss the clash against Brazil.
For the rest of the half, Spain were in control as 10-man Chile tried to see themselves out to half-time. Chile were much better as the second half got underway despite their disadvantage. Marcelo Bielsa made some attacking changes by bringing on Rodrigo Millar and Carlos Paredes and he was immediately rewarded with a goal from Millar, who managed to find his way past a huddle of Spanish players to get his shot away from outside the box. It took a deflection of Pique before nestling in the back of the net and Chile were back in the game with the whole second-half remaining.
However, the goal didn't really improve the quality of play. If anything it probably deteriorated. Spain were content with passing the ball around and weren't as inclined to score the third goal. As the game wore on, both sets of players seemed unwilling to work as hard as in the first half, knowing that the current result would see them both through with Switzerland still at 0-0 with Honduras. Torres was then substituted for Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas in the 55th minute, and he was clearly unhappy about something - maybe the fact that he was struggling or the fact that he was coming off. But again, he was missing that bit of sparkle that we have seen when he is fully fit. Fabregas was once again, a lively substitute, almost scoring on arrival and then creating perfect passes for David Villa, who was playing up front on his own.
Xabi Alonso was also later substituted, after suffering a crunching tackle late in the first half and there are now doubts over whether he will recover in time to face Portugal in the last 16.
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