Vicente Del Bosque faces the axe after Spain are eliminated from the World Cup

The Manager From La Mancha did not go far enough.

Vicente Del Bosque took the tweezers to his world champions when he should have swung an axe.

A couple of changes from the Spain team ripped apart by Holland and a tinkering around the edges of a decaying system of play set up the beautiful game for this massively redefining moment.

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Del Bosque planted a couple of saplings in the outfield when he should have chopped down half a team.

Leaving Iker Casillas rooted in goal after his catastrophies against the Dutch was as much an act of cruelty as a grotesque excess of loyalty.

Seeing him scrambling around on his knees as Chile scored their first, then palming a free kick down into his goalmouth to present them with a second was painfully embarrassing.

Spain’s distinguished head coach knew that his job was as much on the line as the pride of a nation, the future of several of his most beloved players and the football ethos which had changed the world game for an enchanted while.

Gutted: Del Bosque's position is under threat after Spain failed to reach knockout stages

Mayhem: Chile fans caused chaos before the game when they stormed the media centre before being lef away by police

Penned in: Chile fans sit beside a temporary wall that was torn down before the game

Walls collapse at Maracana as 100 Chile fans storm media centre

The cry was for drastic action. Instead he sought a compromise between the keep-ball style which had won three major tournaments in six years and the high-speed power game with which must of the rest of the world has been overtaking Spain.

The issue was not only how well Spain would play but which way they would set about trying to rescue themselves from the humiliation of being knocked out after ony two games in defence of their title.

Tiki-taka or take a chance? Compromise is invariably the mother of disaster.

Despite an invasion of the Maracana by hundreds of ticketless Chilean fans – who broke through fences and the police cordon, stampeded through the media centre and smashed holes in walls there to break into the tunnels – the match started on time as if nothing untoward had happened.

No hiding place: Calamity keeper Iker Casillas cost his country dear

Blunder: Casillas could only parry the ball away before Eduardo Vargas fired Chile in front

Casillas pushed hard in training with Reina and De Gea available

In the vast bowl of the stadium itself, the only security question on 74,000 minds was whether the world champions and their manager would survive the evening.

Most prayed they would not.

The overwhelming majority in the crowd had crossed the Andes to be here, not the Atlantic.

The din they created, louder even than the full house of Brazl’s noisy neighbours from Argentina two days earlier, was especially sensitive to the ears of del Bosque.

He had injected pace into the midfield, i the person of Pedro. At the expense of Xavi, the living legend who is his team-mate at Barcelona.

Stunned: A Spain fan looks gobsmacked after they slipped to another defeat

Sinking feeling: A Spanish supporter is close to tears as Chile seal their fate

The elders of the Catalan nation wept.

Into defence came power in the youthful shape of Javi Martinez, a tower of strength in Atletico Madrid’s remarkable season. Out went Gerard Pique, another Barcelona veteran whose legs buckled under Holland’s five-goal onslaught in Spain’s first match.

The good old boys in Barca put their heads in their hands.

But nothing is forever. The manager was striving to answer the need for change without throwing out too many of the players and principles who have achieved so much.

Down and out: Sergio Ramos struggles to hide his disappointment after Spain's World Cup exit

At 2-0 down at half time del Bosque knew more had to be done. Time was up for another icon. Xabi Alonso bowed out in favour of more energetic youth, by the one name of Koke.

They went back out to strive for a miracle, while being prepared to die bravely in the attempt. Fernando Torres went to join them later, displacing the deeply disappointing but still Chelsea-bound Diego Costa.

Then came Santi Cazorla. But where it had been too little to begin with, now it was too late.

It is goodbye to Spain and hello to whoever becomes the new world champions. Farewell to tiki-taka and adios Senor del Bosque.

It’s been great knowing you.