Will the World Champions recover from the whipping received by the Dutch? Or will Chile (not totally convincing vs Australia) show Spain the door?

Sí, podemos.
Yes we can! Go Spain, go!

Well ati_qtimporta, Chile's back four was bossed for around 70 minutes by Tim Cahill. They started well, ended well, but Australia had plenty of chances and deserved more than the 1 goal.

So, there's hope for Spain, but if they don't get sorted out defensively then there's plane tickets waiting for them, along with a ah, 'uncomfortable' homecoming from the Spanish press and fans.

ati_qtimporta and other DS Forum Spanish football experts - Do Spain have a 'Tim Cahill' style player? (Stop laughing, its a serious question )

This is the official thread for the match. Please ignore my duplicate effort.

This should be a good match. Chile are gung ho and open and Spain need to bounce back in a big way. This should be an open game and hopefully high scoring too as both sides have exciting attacking talent and vulnerability at the back.

I think Spain need more energy in the centre of the pitch. Koke should start in my opinion.

I can see Chile scoring at least 2 goals, based on each teams first game. I don't think it will be enough though, Spain are either going to be back at their best or implode. 3-2 Spain.

I'm not a football expert and I didn't watch the game Chile VS Australia, so I have no idea of what type of player is Cahill.
I only know that we have to play this game with confidence, knowing that we are a better team and we still are the current world champions.
If you go player by player, Spain are a better team, so we need to focus on what we usually do and that is control the ball but looking for a deep pass to our strikers.
We need goals because we are now with -4, so first we have to win and second we have to score as many goals as we can. If we win 2-0, we would have -2 goal difference and Chile would have 0, so the next games would be crucial.
We expect to beat Australia easily, but you never know and everybody here is thinking that we might win by 5-0 or something like that... but I think it won't be so easy.....
We also expect Nederlands to beat Australia clearly. Nederlands would have 6 points and a good goal difference, so they could afford losing vs Chile and making our effort useless. That's why is so important a clear win tonight because if we win only 1-0, we would need a hammer in the last game and wait for other results.

Sorry for my English

I'd drop Pique for this game - he's not been anywhere near his early Barcelona form for two seasons now. I'd put Martinez in his place.

Play Fabregas in place of Costa as a false number 9 and Pedro instead of Silva. It's not a very attacking team formation, but they can't afford to lose the game, a win, even 1-0 is a must for Spain.

The also don't think the Dutch will have it all that easy against Australia. Holland are a counter attacking team and they exploited the gaps left by Spain but the Aussies will try not to leave those gaps and might be difficult to break down.

This will be like a home game for Chile, all the pressure will be on Spain though

Spain XI: Casillas; Azpilicueta, Javi Martínez, Ramos, Jordi Alba; Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta; Pedro, Diego Costa, Silva

Xavi and Pique dropped.

Casillas will never be dropped.

In fairness De Gea is currently injured so to drop Casillas you'd have to play Reina.

astonishing decision by del Bosque to drop Xavi although it's one I agree with. Reina is the no 2 keeper for Spain isn't he? I suppose it was just too difficult to drop Casillas, but his confidence surely must be shot?
Chile are a good side, with Vidal and Sanchez. Hope it lives up to its billing.

Interesting, Xavi particularly,

Change of style ?

Pressures all on Spain, lose and they're out.

Looks like a more central role for Iniesta. Could pay off.

Draw and they are basically out as well, given their goal difference (and the fact Chile and Holland could then 'settle' for a draw in the last game which would take them both through).

Massive invasion of Chile fans into press area at Maracana as walls collapse

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqboRiyIIAElEfF.jpg:large

http://i.imgur.com/5YKlFNS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WJ3INAG.jpg

https://vine.co/v/MTzKr6lqzvH

It's an exciting game for group B

Even a win tonight might not be enough for Spain due to the damage last Friday's defeat did to their goal difference. If Chile beat Holland, Spain could go out with 6 points.

I wonder if the game is going to be able to kick off in time given this protest/break-in/sit-in or whatever at the stadium.

Spain needs to match Chile's high tempo to stand a chance of winning.

I'm going for either 2-1 Chile or 2-2.

Looking forward to this match, hoping for a Spain win to keep the group interesting.

Fancy chile to get a least a point, which would more or less close the door on spain