2014fwc_tsg_report_15082014_neutral

Story of the tournament 15of the Oranje, especially Robben. Primarily,it was the career-defining performance andheroic efforts of keeper Navas that kept theOranje strikers at bay. Set pieces looked to bethe most likely way for the Ticos to breach theDutch defence and they came close with aneffort in each half. The Dutch pushed hard tobreak through the Ticos’ compact defence.However, the woodwork wasn’t to help themas two of Sneijder’s shots rebounded out.Striker Huntelaar was brought on during extratime but to no avail. Louis Van Gaal used hislast substitution to bring on keeper Tim Krul(23) for the penalty shoot-out, and the movepaid off as Krul saved two spot kicks to takethe Netherlands into the semi-finals.Argentina v. Belgium 1-0 (1-0)Argentina booked their passage to thesemi-finals of the World Cup with a 1-0win over Belgium at the Estádio Nacionalin Brasília. It wasn’t a glorious advert forfree-flowing attacking football, but it was athoroughly professional performance builton Argentina striker Higuaín’s (9) early goalafter just eight minutes. Belgium had amplechances to get back into the game, but theylacked the zip in the final third of the pitchdespite having the attacking qualities ofHazard (10) and De Bruyne. Coach Wilmotsmade a tactical change by moving centraldefender Van Buyten (15) to a much moreadvanced attacking position in order to usehis aerial superiority, but chances that fell toboth Witsel (6) and Fellaini (8) failed to hitthe target. Messi could have added a secondin injury time after he broke through to aone-on-one against Courtois (1), but he sawhis hurried shot blocked by the keeper andthe score proved to be enough to take themthrough.