3. Spain – Brazil 2014
Spain was one of the favorites to go all the way for the second time after all they had the great generation of Xavi, Iniesta, Casillas, Torres and David Villa, who had previously won a World Cup and two European Championships all in the space of four years.
As a matter of fact at the end of 2013 Spain was at the top of the FIFA rankings. La Roja’s group consisted of Netherlands, Chile and Australia.
Their biggest rival was Netherlands and the La Roja at least expected to make it past their group considering they never had a group of death like Group D which had Uruguay, England, Italy and Costa Rica but they still managed to disappoint.
They were thrashed 5-1 by Netherlands who had outclassed Spain with goals from Arjen Robben, Stefan de Vrij and Robin van Persie who scored a phenomenal header that was nominated for the Puskas Award (the best goal of the year).
Then the match against Chile came with Spain thinking that they would be able to bounce back but that was not to be the case as they were knocked out of the World Cup on match day 2 by goals from Eduardo Vargas and Charles Aranguiz.
However they did manage to get a small consolation against Australia as they beat them 3-0 thanks to goals from David Villa, Fernando Torres and Juan Mata. This was the end of David Villa’s Spain career and it ended on a bitter note as they were sent packing from Brazil.
