Day 29. The second semi-final was completed last night, with Argentina beating Holland on penalties. Argentina will now play Germany on Sunday in the final of the world cup.

Results
Wednesday 9th July – World Cup – Semi-Final
Netherlands           0-0            Argentina – Argentina win 4-2 on penalties.
Ref: Cüneyt Çakir
Att: 63,267

W

3rd/4th place off details
Saturday 12 July Brazil v Netherlands 9pm live on ITV at the Estadio Nacional, Brasilia

Final details
Sunday 13th July – Germany v Argentina     8pm     BBC 1 and ITV  at the  Estadio do Maracana, Rio De Janerio.

german_team_celebrate_win

News

Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling says he’ll learn from England’s difficult experience at the World Cup. Speaking to LoopJamaica.com, he explained:-

For any young person to be involved in such a big tournament is obviously a great experience and it was no different for myself. It was a good feeling to get out there on the pitch and show the world what I could do.

Obviously on a team performance [level] we are disappointed with how the tournament went. We would have liked to be in the tournament up until now and all the way to the Final but that was not the case.

It was a learning curve for me, an experience I am willing to learn from. Hopefully we build from this World Cup experience and go even further in the next four years.

Korea Republic coach Hong Myungbo is to step down as coach he’s announced, after returning home and seeing his team jeered and booed on their return. Speaking to a press conference in Seoul he said:-

As of today, I am leaving this post. When we left for the World Cup, I said we would give hope to the people but we ended up giving them disappointment. I really feel sorry about that.

brazil_germany2_feat

Quotes From Netherlands v Argentina

Alejandro Sabella, Argentina coach
I’m very happy for several reasons: for the players, for the staff, the people of Argentina, my family, the Argentina FA and for all those who have brought me to this moment. We’ve made it to the Final and this is a historic moment. It was a tough and even match, probably deserving to be a draw, but I thought we had better chances over the 120 minutes. We won the penalties, if they’d won the penalties, I’d say the same. I’m delighted with the professionalism of the players, they’ve given us a great platform for the Final. We never gave up on winning tonight and my players gave everything – every last drop of sweat. Although we have one day less to recover and we’ve played 30 more minutes tonight, we’ll approach the game with hard-work and humility. But we believe that we can win.

Sergio Romero, Argentina goalkeeper and Man of the Match
I have to pay tribute to both Alejandro Sabella and Louis van Gaal for everything they’ve done in my career – and I’ve thanked them both after the game.We are celebrating along with our people and I am so happy. I dedicate this victory to my family. The Final is a one-off game and anything could happen, as luck is also an important element. Playing Germany will be difficult, but our objective since the first day of training has been to reach the Final. Tonight we celebrate, from tomorrow we’ll think about Germany and the Final.

Louis van Gaal, Netherlands coach
It’s the most terrible scenario to lose on penalties. It’s simply a matter of luck and we did not lose today. In a tournament scenario, you need to score more than one goal than the opposition during the game – and we didn’t do that. But not only that, we didn’t create many chances in this match, far less than any other game here. However, Argentina didn’t create much either. Players like Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie found opportunities difficult to come by and so did Messi, Aguero and Lavezzi, so that says something about the tactical battle we saw. We’ve played a fantastic tournament. No-one expected us to make it out of the group stage, but we won it, we defeated Mexico and Costa Rica – and at the very least we were equal to Argentina, if not better.

By Hants