Can a team really be classed as dark horses if everyone is calling them that? Well it seems Chile can.

No-one wants to come across Chile as manager Jorge Sampaoli will set out his side to attack from the off and has instilled a mentality where they fear nobody.

Back in November an experimental England side were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Chile at Wembley and no-one could argue the score wasn’t reflective of the match.

Qualification to the tournament got off to a mixed start with two defeats in their opening three games. 

A run of three consecutive victories was then followed by three consecutive defeats and manager Claudio Borghi was replaced with Sampaoli.

The 54-year-old’s first game in charge was a 1-0 defeat to Peru but they then embarked on a six game unbeaten run, winning five of those games, to secure their place at Brazil this year.

They have been put in a group with the 2010 finalists Spain and Holland and know that only three points in their opening game against Australia will do if they stand any chance of progressing.

Any success will depend on the form of Juventus’ Arturo Vidal and Barcelona’s Alexis Sanchez.

Both players are currently at their peak and Chile can’t afford for either of them to start off slowly.

And with both players linked with moves to the Premier League, there is no better platform to showcase their talents than the World Cup.

This summer marks their eighth World Cup finals but they have only made it out of the group stage on three occasions. 

In 1962 they hosted the tournament and finished third after being knocked out by eventual winners Brazil in the semi-finals.

At France 1998 and South Africa 2010 they reached the last 16 only to be knocked out by Brazil. 

If they do manage to qualify out of the group behind Holland or Spain, chances are they will once again come across Brazil.

Luck is not on their side.