Rio de Janeiro, June 19:
A terribly uninspired Spain became only the fifth defending champions in the World Cup’s history to crash out in the first round itself, blanked 2-0 by a feisty Chile, while Croatia continued this edition’s goal feast with a 4-0 thrashing of a 10-man Cameroon on the seventh day of the event.
The historic Maracana stadium was witness to the death of tiki-taka football, the short passing game made famous by the Spaniards, as Chile displayed brute force to blank the pre-tournament favourites.
The defending champions looked jaded and were constantly outpaced by their seemingly more determined rivals.
Spain needed either a win or at least a draw to remain afloat but ended up joining Brazil (1966), France (2002) and Italy (1950 and 2010) in the dubious club of defending champions bowing out of World Cup in the first round.
They now join Australia, who lost to the Netherlands 2-3 in an earlier Group B match of the day, as the first lot of teams to crash out of the tournament.
Eduardo Vargas put Chile in the lead in the 20th minute before Charles Aranguiz made it 2-0 in the 43rd minute to send Spain packing in front of a packed crowd. Chile thus avenged their 1-2 loss to the same opponents in their group match in the 2010 World Cup.
By virtue of the win, Chile made it to the round of 16 from Group B along with the Netherlands. Spain’s final group match against Australia on June 23 at Curitiba has now been rendered inconsequential.
Spain also earned the dubious distinction of making the earliest World Cup exit by a defending champion. No defending champions have ever been eliminated after only two games of the first phase.
Meanwhile, Brazil 2014’s scintillating show of attacking football continued with Croatia thrashing a 10-man Cameroon 4-0 in Group A.
Goals from Ivic Olic, Ivan Perisic and a Mario Mandzukic brace helped the Croatians coast to victory while Cameroon had Alex Song sent off in the first half for a wild punch.
In other matches of the day, the Netherlands rallied from a goal down to edge past a gritty Australia 3-2 in a Group B match at Porto Alegre while Croatia sent Cameroon packing from the tournament with a 4-0 thrashing in Group A at Manaus which saw Alex Song being red-carded for elbowing an opponent in a moment of madness.
It turned out to be a nightmare for Spain as they did not have any answer to the aggressive and attacking football of Chile in the initial 45 minutes and then played a chasing game in the second half to be outclassed by their opponents in the end.
On a day when King Juan Carlos tearfully sealed his abdication after a four-decade reign, Spain were dethroned as world champions after six years as the dominant force of world football.
In the last World Cup, Spain did lose their opening match but eventually bounced back to win the title. But this time, it was not destined to be like that and their 1-5 humiliation by the Netherlands, their worst defeat since the 1-6 loss to Brazil in the 1950 World Cup, was followed by defeat at the hands of Chile last night.
The talk of the end of an era was imminent as Spain, the exponents of the famous tiki-taka style of football and two time European Championship winners (2008 and 2012) besides the 2010 World Cup crown, exited from Brazil without any impact and scoring just one goal in two games.
Elsewhere, the victory put Croatia just a point behind Group A leaders Brazil and Mexico, leaving their destiny in their own ands when they face the Aztecs in Recife on Monday.
Croatia were the better side throughout, even before Song’s needless dismissal five minutes before half-time.
Olic had popped up in the right place at the right time to tap home from close range on 11 minutes to give Croatia the lead.
Any chance Cameroon had of getting back into the game disintegrated when Song lost his head and thumped Mandzukic in the back right under the referee’s nose, earning a straight red card.
Cameroon imploded as full-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto appeared to headbutt team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo late on.
The second half was all about how many goals Croatia could wrack up as Perisic netted three minutes after the restart.
Mandzukic, who did not play in the opening defeat by hosts Brazil as he was suspended, scored a pair of typical goals for the targetman with a header from a corner and then a tap into an empty net.(PTI)
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