Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Chile advance to end World Cup group stage
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The 2010 FIFA World Cup group stage ended on Friday when Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Chile joined the other 12 teams to qualify for the knockout stage.
![Brazil's Juan (L) vies with Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal during the Group G last round match at 2010 FIFA World Cup, at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, South Africa, on June 25, 2010. The match tied 0-0. Both Brazil and Portugal are qualified for the round of 16. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20100626/00114320f5750d8fa51a20.jpg "Brazil's Juan (L) vies with Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal during the Group G last round match at 2010 FIFA World Cup, at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, South Africa, on June 25, 2010. The match tied 0-0. Both Brazil and Portugal are qualified for the round of 16. [Xinhua]") |
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Brazil's Juan (L) vies with Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal during the Group G last round match at 2010 FIFA World Cup, at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, South Africa, on June 25, 2010. The match tied 0-0. Both Brazil and Portugal are qualified for the round of 16. [Xinhua] |
In Durban, Brazil and Portugal ground out an uninspired 0-0 draw to advance hand in hand.
Group G, topped by Brazil with seven points, saw Portugal in second place on five points, Cote d'Iviore four points and DPR Korea languishing last.
With a 7-0 win over DPR Korea on Monday, Portugal were able to afford a tiny loss to Brazil. Their game was high quality without any goal.
At the meantime in Nelspruit, desperate Cote d'Ivoire laid siege to DPR Korea's goal and eased to a 3-0 win. But both were out.
Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure opened the scoring, followed by Romaric and Salomon Kalou, but it was too hard for the Africans to cut the 9-goal deficit with Portugal.
Cote d'Ivoire will regret not pushing for victory in their opening game against Portugal. They deserved winners today, but leave Ghana as the only African contenders in the second round.
In Pretoria, ten-man Chile secured the last berth of the World Cup top 16, although losing to Spain 2-1 in their last match of Group H.
With the victory and a scoreless draw between Switzerland and Honduras, Spain gained the top place of the group and Chile the second due to goal differences.
Spain became the third team in World Cup history to finish top in their group after losing their opener.
Spanish talented forward David Villa opened the scoring with a 47-meter shot on open goal. Andres Iniesta scored the second to lift the European champions to 2-0 at halftime.
Chilean coach Marcelo Bielsa replaced forward Mark Gonzalez by Rodrigo Millar after the interval. After just one minute Millar's shot deflected off the knee of Gerard Pique and flew into the back of the net.
Spain had been unbeaten in their seven previous World Cup meetings with Chile, with six wins and one draw.
In Bloemfontein, Switzerland, who need a win to survive Group H, were held to a goalless tie by Honduras. Both were eliminated.
The Swiss seemed to dominated the match, making 17 shots but only five on target.
Honduras seemed to be lacking belief but they got two best scoring chances today. Unfortunately, they squandered both to get only one point from three matches.
Now, all teams for Round of 16 have been produced. They are Uruguay and Mexico from Group A, Argentina and South Korea from Group B, the United States and England from Group C, Germany and Ghana from Group D, the Netherlands and Japan from Group E, Paraguay and Slovakia from Group F, Brazil and Portugal from Group G, Spain and Chile from Group H.
On Saturday, Uruguay will play the first knockout game against South Korea in Port Elizabeth.
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