Chile's offense has been opportunistic and its defense airtight. European champion Spain must overcome both with a victory or face a likely embarrassing exit from the World Cup as the Group H teams meet Friday at Pretoria.
Coach Marco Bielsa's young South American squad has been a surprise at the World Cup, sitting atop Group H following 1-0 victories over Honduras and Switzerland. Playing with a man advantage for the final 59 minutes, Chile ended Switzerland's World Cup-record, 557-minute shutout streak Monday as substitute Mark Gonzalez struck in the 75th minute.
"We are in a good position, and we have one more game to prove ourselves even more," Gonzalez said.
Bielsa uses an up-tempo 3-3-1-3 formation and showed he wasn't afraid to press his manpower advantage to the maximum as all three of his substitutions - Gonzalez, Jorge Valdivia and Esteban Paredes - factored in the goal.
For this match, the Argentine-born coach will have to juggle his lineup since midfielders Carlos Carmona and Matias Fernandez will miss the match due to yellow card accumulations. That will put extra pressure on a team that must find a way to neutralize a Spain squad that values possession and is capable of slick passing that finds the slightest holes in an opposing defense.
Despite needing only a draw to advance, Chile likely will not sit back and defend since Switzerland is expected to defeat Honduras in the other Group H match. A three-way tie at six points with a loss and win by Switzerland would prevent Chile from finishing atop the group, with goal difference and goals scored tiebreakers against Switzerland then coming into play.
A trendy favorite to win the World Cup, Spain still faces a virtual must-win situation in order to reach the round of 16. La Furia Roja regrouped from their stunning 1-0 loss to Switzerland by outclassing Honduras 2-0 on Monday, though they could have strengthened their goal differential with better finishing.
David Villa scored a goal in each half for Spain but also pushed a penalty kick wide of the right post in the 62nd minute. The two goals, though, were enough to move Spain into second on goal differential and more importantly, let the Furia Roja control their own destiny.
"The team has found the path to follow and the only thing we need to improve upon is our finishing," defender Sergio Ramos said. "It's true that it would have been useful to have won by more goals, but we'll still go into the game against Chile high on confidence."
A win would allow Spain to leapfrog Chile and guarantee no worse than a second-place finish in the group.
Midfielder Andres Iniesta, who sat out the Honduras match due to a hamstring injury, is expected to be in coach Vincent Del Bosque's starting lineup.
Spain is trying to avoid its first group play exit since 1998, which is also the last time Chile reached the round of 16.
