SPAIN’S shocking World Cup exit Wednesday marks an ignominious end to a glittering six-year run, during which the Iberian nation swept all before them to claim a debut global title and back-to-back European crowns.

    Spain’s first major success came at the 1964 European Championship before fans of La Roja endured more than four decades of under-achievement that finally ended with a 1-0 victory over Germany in the final of Euro 2008.

    After Vicente del Bosque took over from the late Luis Aragones, the success continued. A team built around stalwarts such as captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas, midfielders Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas and forwards David Villa and Fernando Torres followed up with victories at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

    Del Bosque has only had to make the odd tweak to his team and with a host of proven champions theoretically still close to the peak of their careers, Spain was widely seen as having a decent shot at becoming only the third nation to successfully defend the World Cup after Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962.

    But it was not to be.

    Spain’s tournament got off to a shocking start when the Netherlands inflicted the heaviest defeat on Spain at World Cup finals in more than 60 years, a 5-1 drubbing that was sweet revenge for the 2010 final.

    Del Bosque made a couple of changes to the team for Wednesday’s match against Chile. However, Spain was simply not up to the task and their South American opposition looked hungrier.

    Spanish newspapers and soccer fans Thursday mourned the end of an era for their national team. Madrid sports daily Marca commentator Santiago Segurola blamed Spain’s failure on “big mistakes and a sense of brokenness, of exhaustion.”(SD-Agencies)

    (World Cup special on P6)