Tim Krull stars as Netherlands stops giant killing Costa Rica 4-3 on penalties

 The Netherlands line up for a penalty shootout during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Quarter Final match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica at Arena Fonte Nova on July 5, 2014 in Salvador, Brazil. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Yahoo Sports

SALVADOR, Brazil (AP) — Tim Krul came on as a substitute in the final minute of extra time and then saved two penalties in a 4-3 shootout victory over Costa Rica on Saturday, giving the Netherlands a spot in the World Cup semifinals.

"We had a lot of chances but it didn't go in," Krul said on Dutch television. "Then I come in, stop two penalties and here we are."Krul saved spot kicks from Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umana after the  match had finished 0-0.

In another stroke of tactical genius at this year's World Cup, Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal pulled Jasper Cillessen moments after the Ajax goalkeeper had saved a shot from Marcos Urena in extra time.

"The trick is good," said Krul, who plays for Newcastle. "A lot of preparation went into it."

The Dutch team will next face Argentina in the semifinals on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

Argentina advances as Gonzalo Higuain ends Belgium Cup dream 1-0

Gonzalo Higuain of Argentina (2nd L) celebrates scoring his team's first goal with Angel di Maria (L), Lionel Messi (2nd L) and Lucas Biglia during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Quarter Final match between Argentina and Belgium at Estadio Nacional on July 5, 2014 in Brasilia, Brazil. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

ABC

For once Lionel Messi didn't carry Argentina on his shoulders.

He didn't have to.

Gonzalo Higuain ended a four-game scoreless streak with an early winner as Argentina beat Belgium 1-0 and reached a World Cup semifinal match for the first time since 1990.

"Since the first game of this World Cup I said I was calm, that the goals would come. It came and at an important moment," Higuain said. "It's been so many years since we made it to the semifinals. Now we did."

Higuain came into the World Cup still recovering from an ankle injury that had sidelined him since early May. The 26-year-old Napoli striker looked out-of-form in the group stage and wasn't giving Argentina the edge it needed in the penalty area.

That changed in the eighth minute of the game in Brasilia, as he picked up a deflected pass from Angel Di Maria just inside the area and beat goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with a half-volley toward the far post.

"Higuain has the class to put the ball where he wants it. There is nothing we could do about it," Courtois said.

David Luiz thunderbolt kick lifts Brazil against Colombia 2-1

 James Rodriguez (C) of Colombia is applauded by David Luiz (R) and Marcelo (L) of Brazil after the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Quarter Final match between Brazil and Colombia at Estadio Castelao on July 4, 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. (Photo by Alex Livesey - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

The Guardian 

Where to start? It was another epic thriller and the thought does occur that Brazil are in danger of wearing us all out if they continue scraping at everyone’s nerves this way. It is both enthralling and exhausting and now they must clear their heads and prepare to do it all over again. They are, to borrow the line from Luiz Felipe Scolari, two steps from heaven and they absolutely refuse to do it the straightforward way.

They had to survive some dreadfully fraught moments between James Rodríguez’s 80th-minute penalty and the final explosion of joy that told them they had reached the last four. Brazil had played in the first half in the way the world wants Brazil to play. They had to find other qualities in that tense, choppy finale and their methods – victory at any means, to put it bluntly – will not appeal to everyone, after a match that brought a tournament high of 54 fouls.

Yet there was a lot more good than bad in a thrilling contest and, ultimately, it will not be the noise of the referee’s whistle for which this occasion is remembered. It will be David Luíz’s victory run after the immense free-kick that proved to be the decisive goal. Or the relentless noise of the crowd. Or those emotional scenes after the final whistle when Rodríguez broke down in tears and David Luíz abandoned his own celebrations to comfort him, signalling for the crowd to acclaim the Colombian.

What a moment as well for Thiago Silva, scoring the opening goal after all the scrutiny surrounding his captaincy, and the debate in the Brazilian media about whether they wanted a captain who ignored penalty shootouts and cried so frequently. It ended as a bittersweet occasion for Silva, who will be suspended from Tuesday’s semi-final against Germany after a silly booking in the second half. Yet he had played brilliantly. Nobody can question Brazil’s competitive courage now. They looked like a side that had heard the criticisms of Careca and Cafu and various other former Seleção players and wanted to turn the volume down on them.

Occasionally it went too far. It was bizarre in the extreme that Fernandinho managed to evade a booking all night, and even more so that the Spanish referee, Carlos Carballo, did not produce a yellow card until the 64th minute. All the same, the Colombia manager, José Pekerman, made the point afterwards that it was the same for both sides. His team had flown into a few tackles of their own and after one of them, in which the defender Juan Zúñiga leapt knee-first into Neymar’s back with three minutes of normal time remaining, the Brazil forward was taken off on a stretcher. He has a broken vertebra and will play no further part in the tournament; Zuniga went unpunished.

So Brazil will go to Belo Horizonte on Tuesday with their captain suspended and their best player injured. What they do have is momentum and incredible will. David Luíz could be seen whipping up the crowd, hair bouncing, eyes boggling. The truth is the Estádio Castelão did not need encouraging. When everything was going well it was a shrieking, whistling pit of yellow bias. When Colombia had the ball, it was an anguished, plaintive howl. Put together, it made an exhilarating combination of colour and noise.

Mats Hummels heads home as Germany eliminates France

Mats Hummels (L) of Germany celebates scoring his team's first goal with his teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Quarter Final match between France and Germany at Maracana on July 4, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Shaun Botterill - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

NY Daily News

The weather was hot, the performance dreary, and the result inevitable. In a match that stuck stubbornly close to a predictable script, Germany ousted France, 1-0, Friday for a quarterfinal victory in sticky Rio de Janeiro.

The lone goal came early, which only made this game between former World Cup champions seem to drag on longer. On a set piece from the left side in the 13th minute, Toni Kroos looped a dangerous cross into the box, where Mats Hummels outleaped France defender Raphael Varane and flicked the ball past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

“This is the next dream to become reality here in Brazil and I hope it’s not the last, either,” Hummels told ARD television in Germany.

Germany became the first team in the history of the World Cup to qualify for four successive semifinals — a remarkable show of reliability over a 12-year span. Hummels, meanwhile was the first defender to score two goals at this tournament.

Kroos, a midfielder, is known so widely for his accurate service that he is nicknamed “Garcon,” the French word for waiter.

“If you’re talking about the term ‘Garcon’ in the sense of setting up my teammates with good passes, that’s all right,” Kroos had said earlier in the tournament. “But when we’re sitting around together in the evening, I’m not the waiter. I prefer to be served myself then.”

The Germans were heavily criticized at home after their difficult win over Algeria in the Round of 16, and may face more complaints after this rather dull match. “We’re in the semifinals, so who cares about anything else,” defensive defender Philipp Lahm told reporters.

Once Hummels scored, Germany sat back and took the air out of the ball. The French only mustered two legitimate chances, including one in the fourth and final minute of added time, when Karim Benzema stormed in from the left and launched a rocket that was deflected out by Minuel Neuer’s right hand.

For the French, at least, this was a more dignified exit than the disaster of 2010, when much of the veteran team — including Thierry Henry — mutinied against coach Raymond Domenech and refused at one point to disembark from the team bus. After that disaster, Domenech wrote in his diary, “I’m out of here. I couldn’t give a damn about this bunch of imbeciles.”

The French then rebuilt the national team around coach Didier Deschamps, who has a much younger side that played adventurously early in this tournament and with exceptional attacking ability — until it met solid, staid Germany.

France will host the European Championships in 2016 and the hope is that this side will mature in time to compete for the title.

At hot, humid Estadio Maracana before 75,000 fans, however, the French became just another stalk of grain for the German threshing machine. 

Di Maria and Argentina broke the hearts of the Swiss 1-0

 Granit Xhaka of Switzerland and Angel di Maria of Argentina compete for the ball during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Round of 16 match between Argentina and Switzerland at Arena de Sao Paulo on July 1, 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Daily Mail 

For the best part of two hours he cut a frustrated figure, smothered by the attention of a superb Swiss defence and staring at the terrifying prospect of losing out on penalties.

At 27 there might have been no way back for Lionel Messi, the last realistic chance of winning a World Cup, and so the opportunity to emulate the great Diego Maradona, possibly gone.

But Alejandro Sabella had said Messi can do for Argentina now what Maradona did for their country back in 1986 and for the fourth consecutive game of this astonishing tournament the magical, masterful No 10 proved the difference between the two teams.

He was not the match winner on this occasion. That honour would go to the irrepressible Angel Di Maria. But Messi would emerge as the provider of the all-important pass, delivered to perfection, after an explosive trademark run.

For Switzerland it was so, so cruel. For 118 minutes they had more than provided an answer to the best that Argentina could throw at them.

They were the better team for the first half, creating much the better chances, and courageous in their defiance after the break. Diego Benaglio, their goalkeeper, was magnificent. As were 

Fabian Schaer and his colleagues in the Swiss back four.

After the first half chances that were so wastefully missed, it made defeat all the more painful for a Swiss team that certainly looks capable of troubling England come those Euro 2016 qualifiers.

That said, Hitzfeld will not be in charge and Roy Hodgson can be thankful for that. Because a manager who has twice won the Champions League, who yesterday even had to deal with the tragic news of his brother’s death, proved himself a brilliant tactician here. His side might have conceded five to a rampant France but here, once again, was proof of the impact a top international coach can have on his team.

While Hitzfeld encouraged Xherdan Shaqiri to terrorise Argentina’s defence in a manner that delighted the Brazilians whose yellow shirts broke up the sea of blue and white that dominated the Arena De Sao Paulo, he had his more defensive players brilliantly drilled to nullify the attacking threat of Argentina. Di Maria ended up conceding possession 37 times in normal time. Messi found himself surrounded by three or four red shirts every time he was on the ball.

Indeed, that burst of speed that saw Messi ride one challenge before knocking that pass into the path of Di Maria represented the first time he had found space between the Swiss midfield and the back four. But as Hitzfield acknowledged afterwards ‘it only take one second for Messi to decide a match’.

Germany survives Algeria 2-1 in extra time

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PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) -- When it comes to the knockout stages of the World Cup, wins are worth more than style.

 

That was on full display Monday when Germany labored to a 2-1 extra-time win over an aggressive Algeria side to reach the tournament's quarterfinals for the ninth consecutive time.

 ''You don't have to play fantastic every match,'' Germany coach Joachim Loew said. ''You have to win.''

All three goals came in extra time after Algeria dominated for long stretches during the opening 90 minutes. Germany substitute Andre Schuerrle scored in the 92nd minute and Mesut Ozil made it 2-0 in the 120th before substitute Abdelmoumene Djabou pulled one back in injury time for Algeria.

Three-time champion Germany will next face 1998 winner France on Friday at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

''It was a victory of will power,'' Loew said. ''We had major problems in the first half to organize the way we played. We made simple mistakes, which invited the opponents to start counterattacks.''

Germany finally took the lead when Thomas Mueller provided a cross from the left flank that was slightly behind Schuerrle. The Germany forward dragged his left leg and backheeled the ball into the far corner, leaving goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi with no chance.

With the temperature a chilly 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit) and a light rain falling at times, the pace was high at the Estadio Beira-Rio but the goals didn't come until the end.

''Yes, we had our problems but at the end we were better and had a lot of chances,'' Loew said. ''The important thing is to advance. ... Past champions also did not play well every match. You cannot play fantastic every match of the tournament.''

Ozil thought he had put the result out of reach when he pounded in a rebound after a shot from Schuerrle was cleared off the line by defender Esseid Belkalem, but Djabou volleyed in a minute later to make the last seconds count.

Perhaps inspired by the ''Disgrace of Gijon'' at the 1982 World Cup, when Germany and Austria supposedly conspired to oust Algeria in the group stage, the northern African nation outmatched Germany's intensity for long stretches in an entertaining match.

Algeria was playing in the second round of the World Cup for the first time and thought it had taken the lead before a goal from Islam Slimani was waved off for offside in the 17th, one of many opportunities for the Algeria striker.

''We fell just short,'' said Rais, who was voted man of the match. ''That's why we're disappointed, because we think more was possible tonight.''

At the start of the second half, Germany put Schuerrle on for Mario Goetze in an attacking midfield and came out better organized.

In the 55th, Germany captain Philipp Lahm unleashed a hard shot that an outstretched Rais did well to push wide with his fingertips.

Still, Algeria continued to produce dangerous counterattacks. In the 72nd, Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer had to come out of his area to head away the danger with Slimani chasing.

 In the 88th, Germany's inability to find the target turned theatrical for a moment when Mueller appeared to fall during a free kick.

Then the goals came, the rain intensified, and Germany took control.

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Germany: Manuel Neuer; Shkodran Mustafi (Sami Khedira, 70), Per Mertesacker, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Hoewedes; Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Christoph Kramer, 109), Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos, Mario Goetze (Andre Schuerrle, 46); Thomas Mueller.

Algeria: Rais M'Bolhi; Faouzi Ghoulam, Essaid Belkalem, Rafik Halliche (Madjid Bougherra, 97), Mehdi Mostefa, Aissa Mandi; Medhi Lacen; Islam Slimani, Sofiane Feghouli, Saphir Taider (Yacine Brahimi, 78); El Arabi Hilal Soudani (Abdelmoumene Djabou, 100).