Chile held on to claim three points in their opening Group B match against Australia, despite somewhat of a late fightback from the socceroos. Sanchez, Valdivia and Beausejour were on target for La Roja, while Cahill netted for Australia in a 3-1 win for Jorge Sampaoli's side.
It was Chile who took the lead only eleven minutes into the match thanks to Barcelona winger Alexis Sanchez, who chested the ball down from a failed attempt at a clearance before squeezing the ball through Matthew Ryan's near post.
Sanchez turned provider only two minutes later as Chile doubled their advantage courtesy of a sweetly struck Jorge Valdivia goal. Sanchez picked the ball up on the left and picked his way into the middle, squaring it to the Palmeiras midfielder, who only needed one touch before picking his spot in the top corner of the net.
Chile, set up in a 4-3-3 formation, deployed a very attacking style of play with two wing backs and quick pass and move, almost tiki-taka like movement with the ball. Off it La Roja pressurised anything in a golden jersey that moved.
La Rojas' first half was played at such a pace and intensity that Australia were pinned in their own half for large parts and as such the Socceroos struggled to create any real chances, relying mainly on crosses.
It was from one of these crosses, delivered by Ivan Franjic on the right flank, that Tim Cahill halved the deficit. The former Toffee climbed high above anyone in the box and unleashed a bullet of a header past Claudio Bravo to make it 2-1.
Cahill must have thought he had scored the equaliser early in the second half when he headed home, this time from Matthew Leckie's cross. But unfortunately for Australia, the 34 year old was flagged offside.
Mark Bresciano was denied minutes later by Bravo; the shot stopper moved viscerally to his left to keep out the midfielder's powerfully struck, left foot volley. Ange Postecoglou's Australia were now playing with less fear and as such were seeing more of the ball in the final third of the park.
The match was now becoming an end to end sort of contest and Chile almost restored their two goal cushion on the hour mark; Sanchez played Eduardo Vargas in behind the defence, but his flick past Ryan was cleared off the line by Alex Wilkinson. Another needless demonstration of FIFA's goal line technology indeed confirmed that the ball did not cross the line.
Australian hopes of an equaliser were tattered in stoppage time when Chile scored their third goal thanks to Jean Beausejour's low driven effort from outside the area, which skidded past Ryan.
Chile now take second place in the group and relish the challenge of taking on holders Spain on Wednesday in a must win for Vicente Del Bosque's side after losing 5-1 to The Netherlands. Meanwhile third placed Australia entertain said Dutch hours before.
