Footballbits and pieces

The Quarter Finals

Holland 2 Brazil 1
Holland produced a stunning second-half comeback to reach the semi-finals. After taking an early lead through Robinho, Brazil were pegged back after a defensive mix-up early in the second-half gifted Holland an equaliser and were behind soon afterwards when Wesley Sneijder headed in.
Felipe Melo was sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben with 17 minutes to go and, although Dunga’s side gave everything they were knocked out in the quarter-finals for the second successive tournament.

Uruguay 1 Ghana 1 (Uruguay win 4-2 on penalties)
Ghana looked certain to become the first African side to reach the semi finals when Uruguay’s Luis Suarez was sent off for a deliberate handball on the line in the dying seconds of extra-time. However, Asamoah Gyan’s penalty hit the crossbar with what was the last kick of the game.
Gyan took and scored Ghana’s first spot-kick of the shoot-out but John Mensah and Dominic Adiyiah both had their efforts saved by Fernando Muslera, before Sebsatian Abreu dinked the decisive penalty beyond Richard Kingson to break Ghanaian hearts.

Argentina 0 Germany 4
Germany took Argentina apart to book their place in the semi-finals and end Diego Maradona’s dream of winning the World Cup. Inspired by Bastian Schweinsteiger Germany scored four times for the third game at this World Cup in a devastating display of attacking. Mirolsav Klose’s 2 goals moved him to within a goal of Ronaldo as the highest ever scorer at World Cup finals.

Paraguay 0 Spain 1
David Villa scored a late winner to book Spain’s first ever appearance in a World Cup semi-final as they beat Paraguay. Villa’s 82nd minute goal, his fifth of the tournament, hit one post, rolled across the goal line before hitting the other post and ending in the goal.
It was a heartbreaker for Paraguay, who had also never reached the quarter-final stage before, and who earlier had seen an Oscar Cardozo penalty saved by Iker Casillas. Xabi Alonso also saw his retaken penalty saved. Spain’s normal passing game seemed to be absent for this one and they will need to improve if they want to make the final

The Semi final line up
Uruguay v Holland
Germany v Spain