Australia vs Spain Prediction - Will Spain End Their World Cup Stint With A Win?

Next Monday, Australia and Spain will measure forces at Arena da Baixada in Curitiba on a match that will decide what team will take the third place of the group and who will finish at the very bottom.

With two consecutive defeats, Australia annihilated all their hopes and chances of moving forward to the next stage of the tournament. After a slightly unconvincing display against Chile, the Socceroos put up a quality performance against Holland last Wednesday and, although they failed to win the match, they left a fairly positive image of themselves. Holland gained the lead early in the match, but a superb goal by Tim Cahill granted Australia the equalizer almost immediately. During the second-half, the Socceroos got the lead with a Jedinak’s goal from the penalty spot. And that was all Australia managed to do against the all-powerful Dutch team, who managed to bounce back and scored two goals in just ten minutes, thus claiming the match.

On the match against Spain, Australia will, most of all, play for glory and to leave the competition with at least one win in their bags. For the clash against the World Champions, Ange Postecoglou will not be able to count on the contribution of his most influential player, Tim Cahill, who received his second yellow card of the tournament against Holland last Wednesday and who should be replaced by Halloran.

As for Spain, the match against Australia will only serve them to ease the pain of leaving the World Cup so prematurely if they manage to win it.

La Roja’s underachieving performances and two consecutive defeats dictated the end of their dream of renewing the World Cup title. After being absolutely floored by a renewed “clockwork orange” on the first match, Spain didn’t manage to fare any better against Chile and were defeated once again.

The end of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona era caused an abrupt end to the tiki-taka style at the Spainis National and subsequently condemned the team to walk in the desert that Vicente Del Bosque failed to prevent and to counter efficiently.

For the match against Australia, it is likely that Del Bosque will implement several changes in his team, in order to give some first-team football to all the other players he chose for the World Cup.

Despite the team’s recent bland and unconvincing performances, Spain have to be considered firm favourites to win the match, although, in a moment of pure inspiration, Australia could manage to get something positive from the clash against the current World champions.

Australia

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLLDL

Spain

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Australia (4-3-3) - Ryan - McGowan - Spiranovic - Wilkinson - Davidson - Jedinak - Milligan - Bresciano - Leckie - Oar - Halloran

Spain (4-3-3) - Pepe Reina - Juanfran - Sergio Ramos - Piqué - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Fabregas - Iniesta - Juan Mata - David Silva - Fernando Torres

Prediction: Australia 1 Spain 2