The Netherlands vs Chile Prediction - Will Chile Be Able To Surprise Holland As Well?

Next Monday, the Netherlands and Chile will go head-to-head at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo on a match that will decide the winners of Group B.

After reducing Spain to shreds and offering Australia an early ticket home, Holland will now embark on a mission that might prove to be far more complicated: defeating Chile. The Dutch team experienced some unexpected difficulties to overcome a well organized and counter-attack prone Australia side, as they only managed to obtain a narrow 3-2 win. Holland opened the score by the hand of the usual suspect Arjen Robben on the 20’ minute, but the Socceroos leveled the game only one minute later, thanks to a Van-Basten style goal by Tim Cahill. After the break, Australia jumped for the lead with a Jedinak goal from the penalty spot but four minutes later the new “flying Dutchman” Van Persie leveled the score once again with an well placed shot from inside the box. Holland worked hard to overcome Australia during the second-half; nevertheless the winning goal only came on the 68’ minute after a long shot from Memphis Depay.

For the match against Chile, Holland will need to put up a more consistent defensive performance (to say the least), since they will face a team that is extremely dangerous on their attacking movements. Van Gaal will certainly remain faithful to his recent strategy, although he will not be able to count on Martins Indi, who suffered a severe injury on the match against Australia.

As for Chile, a win on the match against Holland will mean the group lead and eventually avoiding facing Brazil at the next stage of the competition. After a somewhat bumpy performance against Australia, Chile pulled rank against the all-powerful Spain and annihilated their still faint dreams of renewing their World champions title. Jorge Sampaoli’s men put up a top notch performance against the Spanish team and, after threatening Casilla’s net on two occasions, they finally got the lead on the 20’ minute thanks to a goal by Vargas after some fine quality movements from his teammates. However, the Spanish nightmare wasn’t over yet as Charles Aranguiz netted in Chile’s second goal just before the break.

Chile obtained the first win over Spain in their already long history and assumed themselves as one of the most impressive football teams currently.

If we have in mind both sides’ recent history, Holland as to be considered favourites for next Monday’s match, although if we look at what Chile have been doing since Sampaoli took the helm of the team, one is “forced” to believe that they have a word to say on Monday’s clash.

The Netherlands

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWWWD

Chile

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWL

Possible Line-ups

The Netherlands (5-3-2) - Cillessen - Janmaat - Blind - Vlaar - Wijnaldum - De Vrij - De Jong - De Guzman - Sneijder - Robben - Van Persie

Chile (3-4-3) - Bravo - Jara - Medel  - Isla - Vidal - Díaz - Mena -Aránguiz - Silva - Sánchez - Vargas

Prediction: The Netherlands 1 Chile 1