FIFA World Cup 2010: An Overview of the round of 16, Argentina face Germany while Brazil takes on Netherlands
The group stages of the FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, saw some of the upsets of the tournament, as the defending champions Italy crashed out. In addition, the runners-up from the last time, France also got eliminated from the tournament. There were some big matches set for the second round, as the fans were hoping to avoid any other major upset.
However, there were no such upsets in the second round of the FIFA World Cup. The Round of 16 kicked-off with the encounter between Uruguay and South Korea. Uruguay was the clear favourites to win the match, and they did emerge victorious by a margin of 2-1. Luis Suarez scored twice to help his team advance to the next round.
In the Quarter Final, Uruguay would face the only African survivors, Ghana. Ghana played its second round match against the USA, as both teams were equally likely to win the match. In the allotted 90 minutes, there was a stalemate as both teams were level by 1-1. In the extra minutes, Ghana got a second goal, which proved to be the winning goal of the match. The result was actually good for the World Cup, as Ghana is the only African team left in the World Cup, and their progress would keep the spectators alive.
In the third match, England faced Germany in a crucial tie. Both teams were equally favoured to win the match, but Germany had a slight edge. Germans had a better performance at the group stages, as they topped their group. England, however, finished second behind USA, and due to this, they had to face a big team, so early on, in the tournament. The speculations were that the match might go into the penalty shootout, but the Germans had different plans. Taking advantage of lack of concentration at the back, the Germans scored two goals in the first half. England did get a goal back, but the Germans got two more goals in the second half to win the match by 4-1. Lampard’s ‘goal’ during England’s 4-1 defeat to Germany was ruled out even though the ball clearly crossed the line. Repercussions of that incident have caused Uruguayan referee and his helpers to pack his bags, while FIFA President apologizes.
In the next match, Argentina beat Mexico by 3-1, to set-up an encounter with the Germans in the Quarter Finals. Both these matches saw a lot of controversy as well, as the English were denied a goal despite the ball crossing the goal-line, while the Argentineans were given a goal on offside. This raised a huge cry for the use of technology in football, to which the President stated, “We will naturally take on board the discussion on technology and have first opportunity in July at the business meeting.” The FIFA president further said that the International Football Association Board (IFAB) would look again at the goal-line technology.
On the third day of the Round of 16, Netherlands faced the Slovakians in the first match. Netherlands rejoiced the come-back of Arjen Robben, who scored the first goal for the team in the World Cup. In the end, the Dutch proved too strong for the Slovakians to counter, as they won the match by 2-1. Brazil routed out the Chileans in a clear one-sided match, by a margin of 3-0. Now, they would meet the Dutch in the Quarter Final match.
The last day of the second round matches saw the Paraguayans against the Japanese. Both the teams had shown a good attacking football at the World Cup, but the match ended with a goalless draw. In the end, a penalty shootout gave the Paraguayans the victory, which would put them up against the Spanish in their Quarter Final. The Spanish had to do a tough job, as they faced a resilient and attacking Portuguese side. At the end, only one goal was separating both sides, as David Villa scored the winner for the Spanish. The Spanish, however, had better of the match, as they looked to be back in form again. The passing and possession in the midfield, for the Spanish, was once again spectacular.
The Quarter Finals of the World Cup would start on 2nd of July, when eight teams would fight for their survival. The matches are going to be tough for all the teams, but everyone would be looking forward to the match between Argentina versus Germany, and Brazil versus Netherlands. The World Cup is far from over, and at this stage, it is even impossible to tip any team for the eventual victory.
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