Spain will now face Germany in their first ever World Cup semi-final after they beat Paraguay one-nil in the evening kick-off in Ellis Park stadium. It was Paraguay's first ever time playing in the quarter-finals whereas for Spain, the quarter-final stage has been a bit of a bogey stage for them in recent World Cups. They have reached it 5 times, but have failed to get any further than that.
Paraguay became the third South American team to exit the competition, in the space of 2 days as Spain's progression now guarantees European representation at the final. Looking at the ties involving European teams, one could say that Spain had the "easiest" of the lot, with Holland having to face Brazil and Germany having to face Argentina. However, they made hard work of their victory last night and will now be looking to improve on their performance, ahead of their semi-final against Germany on Wednesday night.
The first-half passed relatively uneventfully. It was actually Paraguay that settled much better into the game, having a few chances and increasing the pressure on their opposition. Gerardo Martino's team were much improved from their woeful performance against Japan. He had made wholesale changes, bringing in 6 different players to the team that won on penalties against Japan in the second-round. The changes seemed to be paying dividends, when Santana shot straight at Casillas, in the very early exchanges. Riveros saw his header go wide whilst Nelson Valdez, who had impressed me when he came on as a sub against Japan, was a real menace to the Spanish defence with his speed and quick passing.
The problem with Paraguay, as we saw against Japan, was that they managed to get into good positions, particularly on the counter but were too slow at moving the ball forward and thus taking advantage of the space and time they had. This was particularly frustrating, as Spain then became more dominant in possession and comfortable with their passing. Still, Paraguay did their best to block the Spaniards from getting too comfortable in midfield. They were decent in defence which prevented too many Spanish players from getting in the box. Del Bosque had once again kept his faith in Fernando Torres, with reports suggesting that he was going to be dropped. However, like in his previous games, he failed to impose himself on the game and even when he got into good positions in the box, he was not able to really do anything with the ball, as we know he can or as we have seen him do at Liverpool. The best chance for Spain came from Xavi, who was able to turn with the ball and just shoot over the bar.
Paraguay had a goal disallowed for offside just before the first half ended, when Valdez had slotted in from close-range. Replays showed that Valdez was not offside, but his teammate, Oscar Cardozo was, and as he was interfering with the run of play, the assistant had no choice but to flag Valdez. Spain were left largely frustrated as they headed into the break and knew they needed to up their game badly, if they were to see off the resilient South Americans. Shortly after the second half had gotten underway, Del Bosque made his first substitution of the game - taking off the ineffective Torres for Cesc Fabregas.
The game really heated up when we had some penalty drama at both ends, not too long after the restart. First Paraguay got a penalty, and thus a chance, to get themselves into the lead and put Spain on the backfoot. Pique had blatantly held onto Cardozo in the box, when Paraguay were given a freekick - in fact he was holding on to his hand so much as though he was on some kind of ride, and was afraid of letting go. It was quite funny, but stupid by the experienced Pique too. Oscar Cardozo, was also the man to take the spotkick. It was his kick that had won the shootout against Japan but this time he kicked it straight at Casillas, who not only made the save, but did really well to hang onto the ball too to prevent any rebounds from going in.
Not even a minute later, Spain were awarded a penalty at the other end of the pitch. I don't think I have ever seen that in a football match before where first one team has a penalty, and then 30 seconds after their penalty is taken, the other team gets one at the other end. Alcaraz was ruled to have brought down Villa in the box, giving Alonso the chance to give Spain the lead. His penalty did go in but was adjudged to have been encroached by several Spanish players running into the box before he had struck the ball. Replays actually showed this to have happened on all 3 kicks that were taken, but it was Alonso's first try that was forced to be retaken. It was a funny, psychological battle as to where he would put it...in the same spot or somewhere different? He chose the same spot...but so did the keeper, however, unlike Casillas he could not hold on to the ball forcing a scramble from both sets of players in an attempt to get the ball. This was where there was another big shout for a penalty, as Villar tripped Cesc Fabregas as he tried to get to the ball. The replay showed it was a penalty but perhaps the referee had had enough of giving them, and felt that he couldn't give yet another one even if it meant disobeying the law. Sergio Ramos had actually latched on to the ball but it was blocked off the line.
What incredible drama! It was enough to get everyone out of their seats, in what had been a largely uneventful tie thusfar. Following on from the whole penalty shenanigans, the game became much more open as both sides tried to see it off before extra time could commence. It was end-to-end stuff and it wasn't until less than 10 minutes before the end, that Villa scored his fifth goal of the tournament to snatch the win for Spain. Before his goal, the substitute Pedro had seen his shot rebound off the woodwork, however Villa made sure his went in between the posts before he went off to celebrate with his teammates. Busquets got the ball into the area and fired it goalwards, only to see it rebound off the post...but it found its way to the ever-present David Villa, whose shot also hit the same post...before pinging toward the other posts and finally settling into the back of the net. It was heartbreaking for Paraguay who had tried so hard until then to keep Spain out and it really looked like we were heading into extra-time once more.
Before the goal, Martino had thrown on all his attacking options in a bid to win but was unable to find a way through as Spain assumed control. Iniesta saw his shot blocked by Villar as Spain were able to see out the win, despite Paraguay coming close to a equaliser extremely late on as Roque Santa Cruz saw his effort on goal saved by Casillas. Villa had the last shot of the game, but again, his attempt was saved. The final whistle resulted in uproar from the Spanish who make their way into their first-ever semi against the Germans, but Cardozo was in tears as he thought ahead to what might have been.
Spain know that they have plenty of work to do as they prepare to face Germany. Many people's favourites before the tournament, will now be viewed as the underdogs. So far, Spain have been able to get away with winning 1-0 but this won't do against the free scoring Germans. The other big question is will Del Bosque start with Torres? He has been ineffective so far, and Fabregas has made an impact when he has come on, so it will definitely be interesting to see whether Del Bosque keeps his faith in El Niño.
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