World Cup Soccer 2010: Spain vs. Portugal Preview – World Number 2 vs. World Number 3
European giants Spain and Portugal have played great football during the ongoing World Cup in South Africa. Historically speaking, both teams have been extremely unlucky in FIFA World Cup’s so far. Portugal and Spain haven’t won a FIFA World Cup at any point in time. As a result, both teams are dreaming to lift the coveted trophy by winning today's encounter to qualify for the next round. In the recent past, Spain and Portugal have made it to the final stages but have failed to win lift the cup. Today, history is bound to repeat for one of the teams. Today marks the day when the world’s second best team in the shape of Spain will be up against world number 3 Portugal in a do-or-die battle to win a spot in the quarterfinals.
The Spanish side, so far, did not have an impressive run in the FIFA World Cup 2010. Their first match was against a defensive Switzerland team. The Swiss team came into the match with a record for conceding absolutely no goals for about five hundred and fifty minutes in the field. The Spaniards took it as a challenge as they entered the field to break that record. The Spanish, however, could not find the net against the Swiss and eventually lost the match in a shocker 1-0 ending. As a result, Spain started their World Cup campaign on a disappointing note. However, they kept scoring goals in their next matches. David Villa showed his prowess with the ball and helped his country win the next two matches.
Their second match was against Honduras, which they easily won by keeping most of the possession and scoring two goals. Both the goals were scored by David Villa, who is in the run to win the golden boot award. Their third match was against the very impressive South American side in the shape of Chile. In their last few matches, Chile won showed the world that they had come to South Africa with one aim and that was to win. As a result, the Spain versus Chile match boiled down to a battle of nerves. The Spaniards had to win this if they wanted to qualify for the pre-quarter finals and they did just that. They defeated the Chileans with a 2-1 win over them. David Villa scored the first goal of the match with a tremendous left foot strike from long range. So Spain ended the group stage with a remarkable comeback and ended their first round at the top of their group.
Portugal on the other hand has been flawless in South Africa 2010 when it came to guarding their goal by conceding no goals in this tournament as yet - not even against the world’s best team in the shape of Brazil. Portugal had a difficult run in the FIFA World Cup 2010. They were grouped with Brazil, the African Elephants Ivory Coast and Korea DPR. The Koreans however faced humiliation in this group because the rest of the group was really tough for them. The Portuguese started their World Cup campaign by facing the African Elephants and the match ended in a goalless draw. The highlight of the match came when Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo made a fabulous long range effort which struck the cross bar and left it moving for a long time.
Their second match was against the Koreans, who were thrashed by the Portuguese. They defeated them with a seven goal margin and left Ivory Coast to deal with a 7-0 humiliation. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first ever international goal and this victory gave the Portuguese a good hope of qualifying for the next round. In their next match, the Portuguese had to face the biggest challenge in their World Cup campaign till now. They were to face the Brazilians and Portugal had to get a draw against them to make sure that they qualified for the next round. The Portuguese did just that by denying the Brazilian forwards time and time again. Portugal managed to leave the pitch with a goalless draw. Portuguese goal keeper Eduardo faced some amazing challenges in this match but he delivered his best. He denied all the Brazilian tries and Portugal drew the match and qualified for the next round as runner-ups from their group, right after Brazil.
Now, Portugal is set to face the European Champions, Spain. This match is going to be exciting because of the fact that they both are almost on the same rank in the world. Spain is at number two while the Portuguese are on number three. Who is going to find a spot in the next round? Only time can tell.
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