Pain for Spain

Holders Spain were humiliated after defeat to Chile saw them suffer an early exit from the 2014 World Cup.

Spain were among the favourites for the title and, even after a woeful 5-1 loss to Holland in their opening game, Vincent Del Bosque's men were expected to bounce back in their second match.

But it was not to be. Not only did they fail to qualify for the knockout stages with one game still left to play, but the manner of their performances was truly terrible.

After taking the lead against Holland things were looking good until a second-half collapse saw them on the wrong end of a hiding. But even that was seen as maybe just a bad day at the office and one they would recover from.

But there seemed to be no hunger or desire to come up with a top quality performance to erase the memory of the previous one. Spain really were struggling to create anything, it looked like the end of an era for what had been a dominant force in world football.

Spain really don't seem to have much luck in Brazil! The last time they conceded seven goals in two games at a World Cup was back in the 1950 tournament in, you guessed it, Brazil! On one level, it was horrible to see such a force capitulating before our very eyes but at the same time it was refreshing to see an underdog make them look so ordinary!

It seems the World Cup is difficult to retain. France won the tournament in 1998 before failing to get out the group stages in 2002. Italy failed in 2010 after their 2006 triumph and now Spain, who became the fifth defending champion to fail to progress from the group stage at the World Cup.

So, is the expectation of winning the title again and having to reach a certain stage becoming too much? I don't think so! But as every football fan knows, you can never underestimate an underdog and it is becoming more common than it was several years ago for a smaller side to be able to have a chance of getting a shock result.

But all the focus seems to be on Spain's downfall and the shock of them not even reaching the knockout stages, but let's give Chile credit. The South Americans fully deserved their 2-0 win and it was as equally about them playing well as it was about Spain underperforming.

When watching the highlights back, I had totally forgotten about Pedro's early effort for Spain, such was Chile's dominance in the game.

Slick passing from Chile set up Eduardo Vargas to open the scoring after 19 minutes but, even then, my head was telling me "Spain will pull a goal back, they'll be fine".

How wrong I was! Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who had a torrid time against Holland in the opening game, again took centre stage after his poor punch from Alexis Sanchez's free-kick allowed Charles Aranguiz to score a top goal with the outside of his foot.

Spain were 2-0 down and fighting to stay in the World Cup, or at least that's the reaction you would have expected. But they still didn't show any fight. At no point did they look like pulling a goal back, the holders looked totally helpless and exited the tournament with a whimper....and they still have a dead rubber against Australia left to play.

Disappointment for Spain but another game to add value to the argument that the 2014 tournament in Brazil could be the greatest World Cup.

The World Cup will now have new holders and there will be no victory song for Spain. There will also be no victory for Song in Cameroon either!

With the scores tight at 1-0 the Barcelona midfielder inexplicably elbowed the back of Mario Mandzukic, very idiotic and gave Cameroon a mountain to climb in a game they maybe could've got something out of. Song did later apologise for his actions but it was still a very stupid thing to have done in a big match on a global stage in front of a mass audience!

Ivan Perisic burst up field before firing home to double Croatia's lead within three minutes of the restart. Cameroon's fate was then all but sealed when Mandzukic's header put their opponents three goals to the good shortly after the hour mark.

Mandzukic tapped in a rebound to secure a 4-0 win for Croatia, leaving Cameroon to join Spain and Australia as teams failing to make it out of the group stages at this summer's World Cup.

As if the defeat wasn't bad enough, the problems mounted for Cameroon as two of their own players tussled with Benoit Assou-Ekotto headbutting team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo.

A World Cup is meant to be about nations coming together and uniting in their love of sport, not players from the same team turning on each other! It looked as if it would continue down the tunnel after the game but the experienced Samuel Eto'o tried to stand in the way.

Cameroon were never expected to do too much in their group, but this is certainly not the fashion in which they would want to be exiting the tournament (not that there is ever a good way). They will need to produce something special in their final group match against hosts Brazil if they are to redeem themselves following their nightmare night in Manaus.

But take nothing away from Croatia, they took their goals well and deserve to still be fighting for qualification into the knockout stages, with their match up against Mexico likely to decide who gets second place in Group A.

The group stages continue to get more exciting and it is almost time for the turn of England to kick start their tournament against a Uruguay side also hoping to bounce back from defeat.

It is going to be a hugely tough game and stopping Luis Suarez alone will be difficult but, if we can hit top form, we are capable of getting a result against the South Americans.

Our World Cup hangs in the balance and the next result will go a long way to deciding the fates of both sides in Group D but nothing is over yet! Let's get behind the boys and just wait and see what happens!

QUE SERA SERA

EN-GER-LAND