Argentina advances to finals, defeat Netherlands in penalty shootout (4-2)

Argentina eliminated Netherlands in the second semi-final of FIFA World cup 2014 played on Wednesday in Sao Paulo and send it to finals for the first time since 1990. Argentina will play Germany on Sunday in the World Cup final and Netherlands will face Brazil in the playoff for third place.

Penalty shoot-out was needed to separate two sides after a goalless 120 minutes. In the penalty shoot-out Argentina keeper Sergio Romero appeared as his team’s star by saving two of the four Dutch spot-kicks. Argentina will face Germany for the 3rd time in finals, earlier having a won in 1986 and lost in 1990.

Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said, “I’m very happy because we reached the final and now we will see what we can do. We will give everything as usual, with humility, work and 100% effort.”

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal was left to guilt being unable to send on his expert spot-kick saver Tim Krul for the shootout – like he did against Costa Rica as he earlier used his all the substitutes. He said,”I asked two players to take the first kick before deciding on Vlaar because I thought Vlaar was the best player on the field and I thought he had a great deal of confidence. But it goes to show, when push comes to shove it is not easy to score a penalty kick. Everybody knows that.”

After a miss in the penalty shootout Vlaar said, ”When you take one you have to score and that didn’t happen, so it wasn’t good enough. I would never walk away from my responsibility. I wasn’t nervous, I was focused. But it must go in and it didn’t.It’s tough, but that’s what sport is about,” he added. It really hurts, a dream which gets put out.”

MATCH STATS :

Argentina (4-3-3): Romero, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Garay, Rojo, Biglia, Mascherano, Perez(sub: Palacio), Messi, Higuain(sub: Aguero), Lavezzi(sub: M.Rodriguez).

Netherlands(5-2-1-2): Cillessen, Kuyt, De Vrij, Vlaar, Martins Indi(sub: D. Janmaat) , Blind, De Jong(sub: J.Clasie), Wijnaldum, Sneijder, Van Persie(sub: Huntelaar), Robben.