Uruguay slump to shock early World Cup exit after Baena strike sends Spain through

Uruguay are out of the World Cup again and it’s no one’s fault but their own. “3 million dreams,” the banner said high in the stand in Guadalajara; instead it was a recurring nightmare. Divided and dysfunctional, led by a man who barely even says buenos dias to his players, and unable to get beyond a draw against Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde, they needed something big against Spain. But they could only manage two shots on target all night, neither of which came before the 80th minute or carried even the slightest threat. Spain meanwhile had just one, and that didn’t carry much of a threat either. But a dreadful mistake from Fernando Muslera allowed Alex Baena’s shot to slip into the net just before half-time break. Uruguay fought but didn’t play much football and so they fell. For the second World Cup in a row they failed to get out of their group; and if four years ago that could be explained by the teams in their group – South Korea, Ghana and Portugal – and they had only been eliminated on goals scored, this time the opponents only made it worse, demanding a far deeper analysis. As the final moments played out here, Guadalajara sang the name of the team that had beaten them to the next round: no, not Spain; Cape Verde . Uruguay had kicked and that was about it. Spain had survived them and gone through, as they were always going to. This was a night in which nothing much that was good really happened, even if at the start it had looked like it might. …