Spain beat Germany in semi-final game
Spain beat slightly favorite Germany 1-0 today at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban and became the second finalist of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The current champions of Europe played better than Germany and won the match with a goal from defender Puyol.
Spain played an excellent game, having most of the ball possession, conceding very few occasions of danger and hardly any mistakes against Germany, who just couldn’t get into their attacking football thanks to Spain’s control of the midfield.
Composed primarily of players from Barcelona, the Spanish team started well on the field and had some opportunities in the first forty five minutes, with two clear goal scoring chances by Villa and Puyol, while the Germans only bothered Casillas with a shot from outside the area. Still, the first half ended tied at zero.
In the second half, the game was much of the same music. Spain dominated the midfield and was creating successive goal scoring chances, but it seemed they could not pass the tall German defense. That changed at 73 minutes when Puyol, one of the smallest players in this game, beat the tall German defenders to open the score board, following a corner by man of the match Xavi.
After this goal, Germany tried to react and force at least a draw, but it was Spain, who had a clear opportunity to close the game when Pedro wasted a golden opportunity, if only he had passed the ball to a companion who was isolated and in excellent position, instead of trying to score himself.
Spain, as had happened in the final of EURO 2008, defeated Germany again and is now qualified for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, where they will meet Holland on July 11 at 19.30 GMT.
Yesterday, the now famous, Paul, the octopus from Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany had predicted that Spain would win this game.
The octopus chose between two boxes of food, each with a flag – one from Spain and one from Germany. As usual, Paul walked around the aquarium until the time to choose where to eat and ended up preferring the box with the Spanish flag.
Till now, Paul has never failed any prediction. During this World Cup he predicted the two German wins as well their defeat to Serbia in the group stage, then predicted the two wins against England and Argentina in the round of 16 and quarter-finals.
