Wednesday, 7th July 2010
Euro 2008 All Over Again
Germany vs Spain
in Durban
Last round, four South American teams could have made it through
to the semi-finals. Instead, it's now going to be an all European World Cup Final.
Some would say that this was a re-match of the Euro 2008 Final; which
Spain won (1:0).
Spain sought to control the midfield and thus restrict Germany's
movement.
The European Champions also looked the more likely to score early in
the game; Manuel Neuer quick to block from David Villa in the seventh minute, and Carles
Puyol heading over the bar seven minutes later.
For their part, Germany had a slight penalty claim turned down, just
before the break, when Sergio Ramos clipped Mesut �zil just on the edge of the area.
Half-time: 0:0
Germany semed a little more comfortable in the second-half; until
Pedro skipped down the right, past Boateng and Friedrich, and tried to set up Alonso.
Joachim L�w didn't like the look of that; replacing Jerome Boateng
with Marcell Jansen.
Spain joined Brazil (USA 1994)
and Holland (France 1998) in completing 3,000
passes at a single World Cup Finals tournament.
Spain started to up the tempo, just before the hour, with Pedro
forcing Manuel Neuer to make a save and then shooting wide less than a minute later.
Sergio Ramos also ran into the area to try his luck. The Real Madrid
right back has been wanting to score for a few games now.
Iker Casillas made the save from Toni Kroos look better than the soft
shot warranted; after some swift movement on the left and a lofted cross from Lukas
Podolski found the German substitute unmarked.
Four minutes later, Carles Puyol powered a header in from a corner to
finally edge Spain in front.
Pedro could have sealed the win for Spain, with a little over eight
minutes left of normal time left to play, when he broke through with substitute Fernando
Torres free to his left.
Spain repeat their Euro 2008 performance against Germany; with the
same scoreline.
Final Score:
Germany 0 Spain 1
 Goalscorers:
0:1 Carles Puyol (73 mins)
Man of The Match:
Pedro Rodriguez - Substituted shortly after he failed to let Fernando Torres put Spain two
goals up, but otherwise he had an influencial game.
Teams
 Germany:
1 Manuel Neuer; 20 Jerome Boateng, 3 Arne Friedrich, 17 Per Mertesacker, 16 Philipp Lahm;
10 Lukas Podolski, 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger, 6 Sami Khedira, 15 Piotr Trochowski; 11
Miroslav Klose, 8 Mesut Özil.
 Spain:
1 Iker Casillas; 11 Joan Capdevila, 5 Carles Puyol, 3 Gerard Piqué, 15 Sergio Ramos; 14
Xabi Alonso, 16 Sergio Busquets, 8 Xavi; 7 David Villa, 6 Andres Iniesta, 18 Pedro
Rodriguez.
Referee:
Viktor Kassai (Hungary)
Substitutions:
52 Mins (Germany) - 2 Marcell Jansen on for 20 Jerome Boateng
62 Mins (Germany) - 18 Toni Kroos on for 15 Piotr Trochowski
80 Mins (Germany) - 23 Mario Gomez on for 7 David Villa
81 Mins (Spain) - 9 Fernando Torres on for 7 David Villa
85 Mins (Spain) - 21 David Silva on for 18 Pedro Rodriguez
93 Mins (Spain) - 4 Carlos Marchena on for 14 Xabi Alonso
 0 Yellow
Cards.
 0 Red Cards.
Previous Encounters:
Spain and Germany have met three times in the World Cup Finals. The teams drew (1:1) in a
Chicago group match at USA 1994; West Germany won
(2:1) in the Madrid Second Round match at Spain 1982
and they also won (2:1) in a Birmingham group match at England 1966.
2010 World Cup Final in Johannesburg.
3rd Place in Port
Elizabeth.
2010 World Cup Finals - Knockout Stage.
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