Chile is very close to qualifying in the round of 16 after beating Switzerland by 1-0 in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium of Port Elizabeth. Mark González came in as a substitution to score the only goal of the game for Chile, and Switzerland was down to 10 men after Valon Behrami was sent of with a red card in 31′.
Armed with a fantastic defence, Switzerland was able to pretty much control the game of dangerous Chile that only had one good chance with Carlos Carmona and Arturo Vidal. But things became really difficult for Ottmar Hitzfeld and his players when Behrami saw a direct red card for hitting Waldo Ponce with his elbow. The red card was a little bit strict, but referee Khalil Al Ghamdi of Saudi Arabia had already shown the yellow card 4 times up to that point (9 total in the game), so Behrami should have seen where this was going. And with a man down Switzerland had to be even more defensive than their usual strategy, for over 60 minutes in the game.
So the second half was almost a non-stop attacking game from Chile, with Switzerland’s players staying on their side of the field trying for the draw. Chile rushed to celebrate a goal in 49′ when Alexis Sánchez took a long shot that bounced on the defence and ended up inside Diego Benaglio’s net. But the flag went up since Mark González was off-side, and even though he did not touch the ball, he was blocking the goalkeeper’s view of the shot.
The first 70 minutes of the game had passed, and Switzerland broke the World Cup record for longest time without conceiving a goal. But that would mean absolutely nothing if it didn’t also come with a positive result. The Swiss defence managed to withstand the hammering until 75′, when Esteban Paredes gave the assist to González that scored a goal for Chile from close range. Both players were in the game as substitutions, so coach Marcelo Bielsa made some excellent choices to win the game for his team.
