It was a dismal World Cup qualifying campaign for Chile.The back-to-back Copa America champions were one of the favourites to qualify out of the South American qualifying group, but they left themselves all to do going into the last round of group games.The good news was, it was still in Chile's own hands; a win would see them qualify automatically, whereas a draw would likely be enough to make the playoffs.The bad news was, Chile had the tall task of picking up the result they needed away at table-topping Brazil.And unfortunately for La Roja, they came up short as the Brazilians romped to a 3-0 triumph, with a brace from Gabriel Jesus and a goal from Paulinho sealing the victory.As a result, Chile will not be travelling to Russia, having lost out on a playoff berth on goal-difference to Peru.That means two of the world's best players will not be performing on the world stage: Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal.Vidal had gone onto the match in great spirits, and he posted a series of posts on his twitter page claiming that his side would not give up in their pursuit of qualification.But in one of his most emotional tweets, the Bayern midfielder vowed that he would take his country to the World Cup, accompanied by a picture of his two children.The tweet his since gone viral, but it now makes extremely awkward viewing...You can view the tweet here:

Given their recent success, It was a major surprise that Chile failed to qualify for Russia 2018.

Instead, the South American representatives will be made up of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia, with Peru being given the opportunity to be the fifth country after they claimed an unlikely playoff berth.

Argentina were also at danger of missing out on qualification; but Lionel Messi dragged his side to Russia after scoring a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Ecuador.

As for Chile, they will now turn their attention to Copa America 2019, where they go in search of winning their third straight title.