Friday, June 25, 2010
On Friday needing victory to secure its spot in the knockout phase, Chile stands in the way of Spain’s lofty World Cup hopes, as the European champion goes into its final Group H match.
Spain knows it’s time to live up to pre-tournament expectations or potentially go home early, with both Switzerland and Honduras still in the mix for one of the last two places in the last 16.
Midfielder Andres Iniesta, who is available for the final group match after overcoming a right leg injury said, “For us it’s clear what we have to do – we have to beat Chile.”
Spain hasn’t quite been able to emulate the attractive play that led it to its European triumph two years ago, whether its World Cup favorite tag slapped on it. It has only found the back of twice through David Villa in a 2 – 0 win over Honduras, despite dominating opponents.
As Switzerland muffled it in a 1-0 win that led to questions over Coach Vicente del Bosque’s tinkering with the team as he prefers defensive midfielders Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets over the likes of attacking players David Silva and Cesc Fabregas. Del Bosque asserted, “The idea is to play our own (strengths), take the initiative and take control of the game but we don’t know if they will let us.”
Chile only require a draw at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Stadium to emerge victorious in the group as its six point leads the three Switzerland and Spain each have and on the other hand Honduras has zero.
Suffering defeats in six, Chile has never beaten Spain in the teams’ past seven matches. Chile winger Mark Gonzalez said, “It’s going to be totally different game, they are going to come out attacking and we’re going to apply our own way of playing.”
