JOHANNESBURG // David Villa, Spain's prolific striker, struck again, his fifth goal of the tournament, to beat Paraguay after both sides missed a second-half penalty in a crazy three-minute spell.
Villa's strike, which went in off both posts, was the only goal of a tightly fought game and sent his country into the semi-finals of the World Cup, where they will face Germany on Wednesday.
It was by no means the comfortable victory many expected as Paraguay battled throughout, but Villa, so often his country's hero with five of Spain's six goals this summer, provided the perfect response following a remarkable few minutes that saw three penalties awarded and none result in a valid goal.
Spain started unchanged but, Gerardo Martino, the Paraguay manager, opted to make wholesale changes to the side that looked so impotent against Japan.
Forwards Roque Santa Cruz, Lucas Barrios and Edgar Benitez all dropped to the bench, as Nelson Valdez, of Borussia Dortmund, and Oscar Cardozo, the Benfica striker who netted the winning penalty in their second round shoot-out, came in to lead La Albirroja's attack.
With both teams lining up identically - Spain deployed Sergio Busquets in the holding midfield role of their 4-1-3-2, while Paraguay recalled Libertad's Victor Caceres - the two sides seemed to tactically cancel each other out as the game started slowly.
The South Americans were pressing their subdued Spanish opponents across the park and edged the opening exchanges, but when Andres Iniesta switched to the right flank and Villa moved left, La Roja seemed to relax and enjoy more success.
Xavi, the Barcelona schemer who before the match had created more goalscoring opportunities than any other player in South Africa, tried his luck from distance in the 30th minute, but his dipping volley sailed narrowly over Justo Villar's crossbar.
Yet for all the Europeans' possession they struggled to infiltrate their opponents' robust backline and it was Paraguay who looked more likely to open the scoring.
Their searching deliveries from the wings were causing central pairing Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol problems and when Valdez smashed the ball into the net from close range, the Spaniards were fortunate to see the linesman raising his flag. Pre-match, Paraguay had conceded fewer shots on goal than any other quarter-finalist and that statistic remained unchanged as the teams headed back down the tunnel at half-time; Spain had failed to manage a single shot on target in 45 minutes.
Cesc Fabregas was introduced in place of Fernando Torres shortly after the break and, despite no direct involvement from the Arsenal midfielder, the game instantly sparked into life with a remarkable sequence of events.
Paraguay won their first corner of the match and Pique was caught pulling Cardozo to the ground. The defender was booked and a penalty awarded, but the striker, so assured against Japan, saw his spot-kick saved excellently by Iker Casillas.
With the very next attack, Villa broke through on goal for Spain, only to be adjudged to have been hauled down by Antolin Alcaraz and Carlos Batres, the referee, once more pointed to the spot. With Barcelona's ?40 million (Dh180m) signing missing from 12 yards against Honduras in the group stages, Xabi Alonso stepped up and thought he had given his side the lead, only to see Batres insist it be retaken for encroaching.
At the second attempt, Villar guessed right and Paraguay survived.
Santa Cruz was introduced for Valdez and Pedro was sent on in place of Alonso as both managers looked to capitalise on the new faster tempo of the game. And it was Vicente Del Bosque who, for the second successive game, saw his tactical gamble pay off most handsomely.
With 10 minutes remaining, Iniesta broke through the centre of the park and skipped past a host of bodies before feeding Pedro. The Barcelona striker's composed finish struck the post, but Villa was on hand to calmly knock into an empty net, via both uprights, to send him top in the chase for the Golden Boot, and clinch a semi-final spot.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Results
2.30pm: Park Avenue – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 2,000m; Winner: Rb Seqondtonone, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
3.05pm: Al Furjan – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Bosphorus, Dane O’Neill, Bhupat Seemar
3.40pm: Mina – Rated Condition (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Royal Mews, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar
4.15pm: Aliyah – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,900m; Winner: Ursa Minor, Ray Dawson, Ahmad bin Harmash
4.50pm: Riviera Beach – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Woodditton, Saif Al Balushi, Ahmad bin Harmash
5.25pm: Riviera – Handicap (TB) Dh2,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Al Madhar, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
6pm: Creek Views – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Al Salt, Dane O’Neill, Erwan Charpy
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
MORE ON CORONAVIRUS & THE ECONOMY
How to avoid crypto fraud
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Lexus LX700h specs
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Our family matters legal consultant
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MATCH INFO
Day 1 at Mount Maunganui
England 241-4
Denly 74, Stokes 67 not out, De Grandhomme 2-28
New Zealand
Yet to bat
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
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Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
