Spain vs. Paraguay: Highlights, Results (Photos, Video)

Now it was the turn of Spain and Paraguay to fight for their place at the semi-finals at this 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the winner will play against Germany. Who won? What were some of the best moments during this game? Who were the players who took the field? Where did they play? Keep reading to know all the answers of this quarterfinal final match plus check out the photos and video below.

Spain has so many big names on their team, but we haven’t seen what we expect from them, a big surprise was indeed David “El Guaje” Villa who has been the man of all of their matches. Something that Fernando “the Kid” Torres hasn’t been able to do.

Let’s see, for a second Spain at this World Cup has won three games against Chile(2-1), Honduras(2-0), Portugal(1-0) and one loss to Switzerland(0-1). According to FIFA they are ranking as the second best team in the world, they have been in 14 Cups, but haven’t won any championships. Their best result was at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil when they finished fourth.

Now let’s look at Paraguay – they won over Slovakia(2-0), Japan(5-3) got two draws with New Zealand (0-0), and Italy(1-1). They are the 31st best team in the world, made their Cup debut in 1950 and have been present in seven more, so far this Cup in South Africa is the best result they have on their resume.

Now in this game, the first half went by with one minute added in injury time goalless, where both teams equally dominated the field but with way too many fouls, Paraguay’s Santana left the field for a moment with a bloody nose.

Spain attacked constantly and for a second it looked as if Paraguay was just concentrating on defense, even a hand was committed by Cardozo from Paraguay (hands are getting very popular at this Cup) and now Paraguay was putting pressure on Spain. Paraguay scored a goal by Valdez on the 41st minute, but the referee said it didn’t count.

In the second half things got a lot more interesting when a foul was committed by Pique who got a yellow card and a penalty shot by Paraguay. Cardozo took the shot and Casillas caught it in the 58th minute.

Not long after that on the 59th minute it was Paraguay who made a foul and Spain got their chance for a penalty shot, the man in charge was Xabi Alonso, who scored, but players came forward and the shot was to shoot again, this time Villar knew where Alonso was aiming and blocked the shot. Incredibly both teams missed the penalty shots, a weird thing is that when Paraguay took the shot players also came forward except that this time the referee didn’t repeat the shot.

At last on the 83rd minute David Villa scored the first and only goal, Spanish players and fans celebrated their advance to semi-finals, the game ended after  3 minutes in the injury time.

Here are the players at the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Spain will face Germany in the Semi-finals as Paraguay was eliminated and will be going home proudly and they played wonderfully. What are your thoughts about this game? Did you like each team’s performances? Who was your favorite? Check out the photos and video below.

World Cup Pictures

Penalty shot Spain Vs. Paraguay Video

Photos: www.wenn.com/News Pictures, Matthew Hines, Thomas Faenhrich.

This entry was posted on July 3, 2010 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Soccer, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.