Dominate the midfield

Chapter 669 Chapter 668: Powerful Spain!
The World Cup in South Africa entered the final critical moment, the war between England and the Netherlands ended, and England took the lead in entering the final.

This game left too much room for people to talk about, such as the referee, such as Wang Rui's sideways volley, such as the tactical free kick coordination of the Wolves Gemini, such as how serious Wang Rui's injury is, and whether he can participate Finals and more.

But what people are most concerned about is the upcoming semi-final - Spain VS Germany.

Who will make it to the finals?

From the point of view of overall strength, the two teams are evenly matched, Spain is strong in the midfield and backcourt, Germany is strong overall, and there are no obvious loopholes in each position.

Judging from the competition experience, Germany clearly has the upper hand, three World Cup champions, and the Spaniards are their first World Cup semi-finalists.

From the perspective of morale, the Germans also clearly have the upper hand. They have scored four goals in three games, especially in the German-Argentine war. They beat Argentina [-]-[-] strongly, which made the whole world look up to them.

The Spaniard's road to promotion seemed very flat, and even lost to the Swiss team in the first game of the group.

Judging from the history of the World Cup battles between the two teams, the Germans also have the upper hand.

Germany maintained an unbeaten record of two wins and one tie in the World Cup clashes between the two teams. The two teams lost only two of the eight clashes in the competition and qualifiers. Both of these games took place in the European Cup, one in 1984 and the other in Euro 2008 final.

Therefore, people are more optimistic that Germany will meet England in the final.

But everything has other voices. Paul the octopus from the Oberhausen Aquarium in Germany has successfully predicted the German team's victory over Australia, a small loss to Serbia, a victory over Ghana, a crushing victory over England and Argentina!
All five predictions were correct, maintaining the same 08% hit rate as in the 100 European Cup after five games.

Before the semi-finals, the Germans couldn't wait to invite Paul the octopus to predict again, but this time Paul predicted that Spain would win.

This made many German fans very depressed. Because the octopus Paul's previous prediction success rate was as high as 91%, many German fans even threatened to kill Paul and eat him in stew.

However, the Octopus Paul's previous prediction hit rate was not 100%, and he also made mistakes, which is what German fans want to see.

In the 2008 European Cup, Paul successfully predicted the German team's victory over Poland, Austria, Portugal and Turkey and the loss to Croatia.In that cup, Paul only predicted one game wrong, and that was the European Cup final.

At that time, Paul predicted that Germany would take Spain to win the championship, but the final result was: Spain won the championship with Torres' goal and beat Germany.

After this campaign, Paul the Octopus, who debuted for two years, made 08 guesses and 2010 correct predictions in the two competitions of the 12 European Cup and the 11 World Cup, with a success rate soaring to 92%.

However, what is interesting is that all twelve games of the German team predicted by Paul the Octopus ended up winning or losing, and none of them drew. This also improved Paul's prediction success rate to a certain extent.

At [-]:[-] p.m. local time in South Africa on the [-]th, players from both sides appeared at the Durban Stadium, where they will decide another final ticket.

In order to cheer for his team, Queen Sofia of Spain came to the scene in person!
"Tick!..."

At 08:30 in the evening, with the whistle of the referee, the semi-finals between Germany and Spain officially began!
Both sides appeared to be very cautious at the beginning. It was not until the No.14 minute that the first shot appeared: Harvey took a tactical corner kick. After Spain went through consecutive kicks, Iniesta kicked the ball from the right, and Puyol was in the goal. Dive to the top at the first seven meters!

Soccer over the bar!

Five minutes later, Spain made a comeback. Alonso made a diagonal pass about 5 meters from the left side of the midfield. Ramos unloaded the ball from the right and volleyed from a small angle 50 meters away from the goal!

The football goes wide of the post!

Relying on their strong midfield and backcourt strength, Spain gradually took advantage of the field. The Germans lost the strength to beat Argentina.

German No.30 got his first chance to shoot in two minutes. Lahm countered with a low pass from the right, and Trohovski volleyed with his left foot from 27 meters in front of the goal!
The football was blocked from the right post by Iker Casillas!
This created the record for the longest time for Germany to wait for their first shot at the World Cup since 1966!
It can be seen from this how strong Spain's midfield is, they even let the Germans create a shameful record.

There were not many wonderful pictures in the first half, the scene was dull, and the bored fans even played the wave game.In the end, the two sides ended the first half with a score of zero to zero in dullness.

The fans sitting in front of the TV were quite disappointed. Compared with the Anglo-Dutch game, this game paled a lot.

Sky TV commentator Kent said sarcastically: "The combined number of shots taken by the two teams in the first half was less than ten times, not as many shots as the Dutch team. The two teams are not only disappointing in the number of shots, but also in goals. Disappointing, England scored two goals at the end of the first half.

Not only that, England's two goals are amazing!

Wang's sideways volley was simply a replica of Zidane in the 02 Champions League final, and the free kick of the Wolves Gemini was a textbook goal! "

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. The Germans still did not change their passive situation. Spain firmly controlled the ball and put pressure on the German goal.

In the 3rd minute of the second half, Pedro passed back from the right side of the rib, and Alonso made a low shot from 25 meters in front of the goal, and the football went wide of the goal!

In the 5th minute of the second half, Ramos passed back from the right, Harvey made a direct cross, Alonso volleyed with his left foot 23 meters in front of the goal, and the football went wide again.

At the 18th minute, Iniesta and Harvey made consecutive crosses, and Villa shot from the left side of the goal [-] meters away, and the football went wide of the far post.

In the No.13 minute of the second half, a thrilling scene appeared: Capdevila and Iniesta kicked the wall and then made a low pass from the left. Foot volley!
The football was blocked by Neuer to the right, and the Spaniard then controlled the football. After the transition between Pedro and Alonso, Iniesta broke into the penalty area and shot from a small angle on the left side. After Villa Point flying tackle!
If Villa could touch the football, the ball would definitely be scored, but the football flew past Villa's toes, and Spain missed the best chance to score.

Then Spain made a comeback, Pedro received Harvey's cross call, and shot low with his left foot at the top of the penalty area and missed the right post.

The Germans can only rely on the few opportunities to make a quick counterattack. No. 16 minutes in the second half, Janssen made a pass near the left corner flag area and was headed by Pique in front of the goal. Left foot volley hook shot!
Soccer over the bar!

In the No.14 minute of the second half, Ozil made a low pass from the left, Podolski took the ball from the front point and turned around and rubbed it to the back point. Kroos was 11 meters away from the goal and shot a half-volley with his right foot from the near corner!

The brave Casillas jumped up and saved the football to the bottom line!

In the 208th minute of the second half, Iniesta broke into the left side of the penalty area, Schweinsteiger flew forward and destroyed the football from the bottom line, Spain corner kick.

Xavi took a corner kick from the left, and Pique leaped high. Although he missed the ball, he blocked Khedira. Puyol threw a beautiful lion nine meters in front of Khedira. head!

A white light shines, and the football flies into the net from the right side of the goal!

One to zero!

Spain finally turned the offensive into a goal!
Spanish fans turn the Durban Stadium into a red world of joy!

This is Puyol's first goal in thirteen World Cup games and he scored within the range of the goal frame. This is his third goal in 89 national team games.
Spain has won the previous 42 games with a one-to-zero lead!
Then the Germans wanted to launch an onslaught, but Spain's midfield was too strong, and they couldn't threaten the gate guarded by Casillas.

Spain maintained the victory until the end, becoming another team after Germany in 2002 that won all three knockout games [-]-[-] and reached the final.

Since 1994, every team that eliminated Argentina has been eliminated in the subsequent round, and the Germans have not escaped this fate.

(End of this chapter)