The holders, Spain eliminated in the groupstage

The holders, Spain eliminated in the groupstage

By Charlie Rowing Jul 4, 2014

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Despite a tough group, better things were expected of Spain. The current World & European champions were looking to see if they could become only the third team to retain a World Cup trophy. However defeats to the Netherlands and Chile eliminated them before matchday three. Read this 2014 World Cup Group B betting review for an insight into how the group turned out and how accurate the pre-tournament odds were.

2014 World Cup Group B final table

Nation

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

Points

Netherlands

3

0

0

10

3

7

9

Chile

2

0

1

5

3

2

6

Spain

1

0

2

4

7

-3

3

Australia

0

0

3

3

9

-6

0

Spain were heavy 1.208 favourites to advance to the knockout round. However although they had an implied probability of 82.78% to qualify, they were eliminated from the group stage with a game to spare after two successive defeats.

Los Rojas were expected not only to qualify, but to also top the group and although they surprising lost their opener to the Netherlands 5-1, they were predicted to make up for it by beating Chile in the next game as 1.667 favourites.

However the underdogs Chile beat Spain 2-0, in the process eliminating the holders and qualifying themselves for the Last 16. The Chileans were 5.190 to win pre-match and were at 2.140 to qualify, an implied probability of 46.73%.

2014 World Cup Group B pre-tournament implied probability table

Position

Nation

Odds

Implied probability

Actual finishing position

1

Spain

1.208

82.78%

3

2

Netherlands

1.526

65.53%

1

3

Chile

2.140

46.73%

2

4

Australia

8.400

11.90%

4

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