2014fwc_tsg_report_15082014_neutral

Story of the tournament 15
of the Oranje, especially Robben. Primarily,
it was the career-defining performance and
heroic efforts of keeper Navas that kept the
Oranje strikers at bay. Set pieces looked to be
the most likely way for the Ticos to breach the
Dutch defence and they came close with an
effort in each half. The Dutch pushed hard to
break through the Ticos’ compact defence.
However, the woodwork wasn’t to help them
as two of Sneijder’s shots rebounded out.
Striker Huntelaar was brought on during extra
time but to no avail. Louis Van Gaal used his
last substitution to bring on keeper Tim Krul
(23) for the penalty shoot-out, and the move
paid off as Krul saved two spot kicks to take
the Netherlands into the semi-finals.
Argentina v. Belgium 1-0 (1-0)
Argentina booked their passage to the
semi-finals of the World Cup with a 1-0
win over Belgium at the Estádio Nacional
in Brasília. It wasn’t a glorious advert for
free-flowing attacking football, but it was a
thoroughly professional performance built
on Argentina striker Higuaín’s (9) early goal
after just eight minutes. Belgium had ample
chances to get back into the game, but they
lacked the zip in the final third of the pitch
despite having the attacking qualities of
Hazard (10) and De Bruyne. Coach Wilmots
made a tactical change by moving central
defender Van Buyten (15) to a much more
advanced attacking position in order to use
his aerial superiority, but chances that fell to
both Witsel (6) and Fellaini (8) failed to hit
the target. Messi could have added a second
in injury time after he broke through to a
one-on-one against Courtois (1), but he saw
his hurried shot blocked by the keeper and
the score proved to be enough to take them
through.