The last day of the group stage saw the concluding matches of Groups G and H, with the much-awaited clash between Portugal and Brazil the highlight of the day:
When the draw for the groups and fixtures was made in Cape Town on 4 December 2009, no other match drew as much attention as this one, since both nations have intertwining histories and similar styles of play. Portugal have been even dubbed "the Brazilians of Europe" on occasion for their attacking, devil-may-care-about-defence mode of playing football. Brazil, for their part, had stayed faithful to their 32-year tradition by booking a spot in last 16 with a game to spare, but that still didn't prevent their coach Dunga from declaring an intention to go one-up over their former colonial masters. Given such a background, a tight match was to be expected, but one lacking imagination and initiative was not. Brazil had the early possession and asked few uncomfortable questions at the Europeans' defence, but Portugal, for whom captain Ronaldo ploughed a lonely furrow up front, also had some gilt-edged chances and one particular move had the Brazilian center-back Juan committing a blatant handball and getting booked in the process. In fact, the first half saw a flurry of cautions (7 in all, 4 to Portugal and 3 to Brazil), with Pepe planting his studs in Felipe Melo's achilles heel and Melo returning the favor by ferociously battering Pepe to the ground. Both coaches must have appealed to their teams to go easy on the tackles in the 2nd half and though goals were at a premium, the 2nd half saw a bit more football than rugby but with a 0-0 stalemate, both teams were happy with the scoreline as it meant Cote d'Ivoire (for the 2nd time in as many World Cups) were eliminated from a very tough group.
With Portugal's 7-0 demolition of Korea DPR, the task was cut out for Les Elephants to win by a big margin against the Asians. They almost had a chance within the first minute, but the Korea DPR goalkeeper made a great save. Despite that, the Ivorians raced to a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes, only for the goals to dry up after that. Chances went abegging and try as much as they could, they could not bridge the enormous gap in the goal difference Portugal enjoyed. In any case, that would not have made a difference as Portugal and Brazil fought a goalless draw in Durban, ensuring that Africa lost their 4 representative for the last 16 stage. It remains to be seen whether talisman Didier Drogba will be appearing in Brazil 2014 (assuming Cote d'Ivoire qualify) since he's already 32.
Just like England in Group C and Italy in Group F, Spain were expected to sail through Group H. And just like England and the defending champions, the European champions were staring at an early exit two matches down in the group stage. However, history was on their side, since Chile have never won against the Spanish. History repeated in Pretoria as in-form hitman Villa with a stunning 40-yard left-foot strike and Barcelona magician Andres Iniesta (returning after picking up a knock in the shock defeat to the Swiss) put Spain 2-0 in the first half. Chile were down to 10 men just before half-time with the referee ruling Estrada (who was booked earlier) to have clipped Torres' heels deliberately in the move that led to Iniesta's goal. The South Americans had their chances too, with Mark Gonzalez blazing one over after being teed up by Jean Beausejour but they got only one goal back through Rodrigo Millar soon after the 2nd half started. Chile had to avoid a big defeat to qualify, but with Spain looking ominous, they endured some awfully tense moments and had to wait till the completion of the last league game between Switzerland and Honduras.
After a truly bright start against the Spanish, Switzerland faded inexplicably and became the last European casualty, paying the price for lack of cutting edge in front of goal. Captain and star striker Alexander Frei is no longer at his peak and having a rugged defence is no guarantee for qualification if the goals don't appear to be flowing in. There was a far-fetched possibility of Honduras even sneaking through to last 16 by soundly thrashing the Swiss but that was too much to be expected. With this match, the final pair of last 16 matches have been decided.
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