RIO DE JANEIRO — The king is dead. The World Cup will have a new champion.

And the Netherlands look increasingly like credible pretenders for that newly vacated crown.

Just like France in 2002 and Italy in 2010, defending champion Spain is going home tail between its legs.

Chile delivered the mortal blow to an uninterrupted 6-year era of dominance for Spain, the European and world champions whose dazzling footballers ran out of puff in Brazil. They were made to look vulnerable last week in losing 5-1 to the Netherlands and then simply plain ordinary in a 2-0 loss to a physical and quick Chilean side.

The Netherlands, 3-2 winners against Australia on Wednesday, and Chile are now both sure to advance to the next knockout round having won their two first matches. They will now play each other Monday to determine which of them tops Group B and avoids a possible encounter with host Brazil in the first knockout game on June 28.

In Wednesday’s evening game, Croatia ensured Cameroon won’t go further, delivering a 4-0 thumping to the African side whose injured star, Samuel Eto’o, didn’t come off the bench.