That Was Painful

Spain have finally managed to beat Paraguay 1-0.

The game started off with Spain playing their usual trick of passing the ball around amongst themselves in order to stop the opposition getting enough possession to pose a threat and tire themselves out in the process. Paraguay were having none of it and kept pushing the Spanish. This meant that both teams effectively cancelled each other out and not much happened in the first half. Around the 40th minute Paraguay got the ball in the net but rightly had it disallowed for off-side. The player who put the ball in the net wasn't off-side but the other Paraguay striker was and was interfering with play.

The second half started much the same as the first half ended. Then Spain replaced the under preforming Torres with Fabergas and the change had and almost instant effect. Paraguay got a penalty in the 57th minute after Pique blatantly pulled down Cardozo in the area. Cardozo stepped up to take the penalty and blasted it low and slightly to the left of the keeper who easily smothered the ball.

Then two minutes later Spain got a penalty of their own when Villa was barged over by Alcaraz. Alonso steps up and powers the ball past the keeper. However the Guatemalan referee, perhaps keen not to be accused of favouring Spain, rightly orders the penalty is re-taken due to encroachment into the penalty area. That is the rule of the game but the decision is controversial because the referee didn't make Paraguay re-take their missed penalty despite a similar level of encroachment. Alonso misses the re-take leaving the score still at 0-0 after 59mins.

On 82 minutes Spain finally got their goal but still managed to make a meal of it. Iniesta went past two defenders on his run into the box before laying the ball off to Pedrito who blasts it against the post. Villa rushes in on the rebound and strikes it against the other post. The ball rolls along the goal line before hitting the first post again and making it's way into the back of the net. 1-0 to Spain.

Spain now go onto play Germany in the semi-final. Politically this game could be a little bit interesting because Spain is one of a group of European economies known as the PIIGS* who are having serious problems. Having already bailed out the Greek economy Germany are facing pressure to do something similar for Spain.



*Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain.