Have Spain Been Written Off Too Early?

Holland shocked the football community by dismantling reigning World and European champions Spain 5-1 in their World Cup Group B opener on Friday night.

Nobody saw it coming, as the Spanish have been rock solid at the back heading into the tournament and are among the favourites to lift the trophy again in Brazil this summer.

The ease at which Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder cut them open with such ease was remarkable and in the end, it could have have been a lot worse for Spain as Van Persie and Robben both hit the woodwork and missed further chances to increase the scoreline.

But all is not lost. Vicente del Bosque’s side still have two remaining games to book their place in the knockout stages and keep their World Cup hopes alive. The first game takes place tonight as they face a now decisive clash with a dangerous Chile side who won their opening game 3-1 against Australia.

If we take a look at the current football odds online, we’ll see that Spain are the favourites to win this evening at odds of 1.55, which seems short odds when you consider their performance on Friday. The bookies still think they will go on to qualify for the last 16, but failure to win tonight will leave the Spaniard’s with it all to do just to get out of the group stages.

However, with the quality they possess in their squad, I think it would be silly to write Spain off after one poor performance. Let’s not forget they lost their first game in the 2010 World Cup and went on to win it, and history could easily repeat itself this time around.

They still have arguably the most talented squad of players at the World Cup, and you just had to look at the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla, Pedro and Koke sitting on the bench to realise that. So I think people are dismissing the Spanish a little early, but we’ll know a lot more about their chances after tonight’s game with Chile….