2010 World Cup: Portugal v Spain full time report
Portugal 0 Spain 1
David Villa continued to light up the World Cup with the only goal of the game for Spain, as they overcame a very defensive Portugal side in Cape Town.
The scoreline may only read 1-0 but Spain completely and utterly dominated possession for the entire 90 minutes, and as soon as they grabbed the lead, Portugal’s hopes of progressing through to the quarter finals evaporated as they simply didn’t possess the attacking intent to seriously trouble the European Champions.
It was a very frustrating first half for Vincent Del Bosque’s side, Spain’s best spell came in the first ten minutes, where both David Villa and Fernando Torres tested Eduardo in the Portugal goal. Villa cut in from the left and struck a fine shot which was parried to safety and from the same sort of area Torres looked to curl one in the top corner but once again Eduardo was alert to the danger.
Portugal rarely posed much of a threat in the attacking third but came close just before half-time, as a couple of dangerous balls into the box caused the Spanish backline a couple of nervy moments. Hugo Almeida wasted the best opportunity, as he just failed to connect with a Simao centre.
The Spanish continued to dominate in the second half, with Portugal’s negative tactics meaning Cristiano Ronaldo hardly saw any of the ball. The arrival of Fernando Llorente for the disappointing Fernando Torres on 58 minutes, gave Spain a more physical and mobile centre forward and he played a part in the opening goal.
He caused a nuisance on the edge of the box which gave space for Xavi and Andreas Inestia to work the ball to Villa, who looked border-line offside, and his first shot was saved by Eduardo but made no mistake from the rebound to score his 33rd international goal in his last 34 internationals.
From then on Spain found more space to work their magical triangles, with Villa’s movement on the left flank a joy to watch. He forced a flying save from Eduardo from 30 yards and continued to give the Portuguese right back, Costa a torrid evening.
Costa’s evening got worse just before the full-time whistle, as he was given a straight red card for an apparent elbow on Joan Capdevilla.
The red card ended the game as a contest and Spain cruised to a quarter final meeting with Paraguay on Friday.
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