Sports
FWWC: Spain Spanks Netherlands 2-1 with a Late Goal to Zoom to Historic Semifinal
The La Roja of Spain sped into their first semifinal in three appearances at the women’s world cup at the Wellington Regional Stadium with a late extra time goal against Netherlands. The game ended 2-1 in favor of Spain.
Paralluelo scoring the decisive goal.ver photo: Paralluelo scoring the decisive goal.
20 year old teenager, former Sprinter and outside left player for Barca, Salama Paralluelo collected a pass from Jenni ran past two defenders with the ball and shot Spain into the historic semifinal at 111st minute of play. It was the first defeat of Netherlands at the present games.
It was a game of incidents. A goal scored by Gonzalez of Spain through a Redondo pass in the 37th minute was ruled offside by the lines woman. Ref Stephaine Frappart (39 years) who handled the match between Sweden and USA that also went into extra time was extra vigilant in the game.
A penalty was over ruled by VAR for Netherlands in the 63rd minute when Lineth Beerensteyn was pushed by Peredes of Spain, Ref initially awarded a penalty with a yellow but VAR changed it.
There was a suspected arm ball by Van der Gragt when Paralluelo shot into the box. Mariona Caldentey of Barcelona scored the penalty as she made the goalkeeper go the other way in the 81st minute for first goal to Spain.
Netherlands equalized through a compensation of an earlier penalty by the same Stefanie Van der Gragt of Inter Milan who got a pass from Victoria Pelova in the 90+1 minute and shot into goal from 18 yards away.
Netherlands were not in the game in the first half as the team did not get a shot at goal nor a shot on target but the stats showed Spain had 28 shots at goal with 8 on target while Ned had 10 shots at goal with 4 on target. Ned had 22-7 foul calls with 2 corner kicks to 8 of Spain.
Daniella Van de Donk of Netherlands missed the quarters because of her suspension as a result of two yellow cards she bagged during the matches against South Africa and Portugal.
SPAIN WILL MEET THE WINNER OF THE JAPAN VERSUS SWEDEN IN THE SEMIFINAL ON TUESDAY 15TH AUGUST.
To get to the quarterfinals, Spain beat Costa Rica 3-0 on 21st July; refused Zambia freedom via 5-0 drubbing on 26th July and surprisingly lost to high tech, Japan 4-0 on 31st July. Spain hit Switzerland 5-1 in the round of 16. Spain is current highest team scorers with 13 goals in this tournament and has conceded 5 goals now.
Netherland started with a slim 1-0 win over Portugal on 23rd July; played 1-1 with USA on 27th July; banged out Vietnam 7-0 on 1st August and in the Round of 16 dismissed South Africa 2-0 to get to the quarterfinals.
Spain on 16th February 1983 defeated Netherlands 1-0; but Ned won 2-1 on 16th November 1983; at the 2010 world cup played 11th July Spain won 1-0; the highest win for Netherlands against Spain was at the 2014 world cup played 3rd June with a 5-1 win; Ned was superior again on 31st March 2015 beating Spain 2-0 and on 11th November 2020 they played 1-1 draw.
The Spanish side had beaten Slovenia 17-0 at Palamos on 20th March 1994 but the country suffered heavy defeat from Sweden 0-8 on home ground at Ganalia, Spain on 2nd June 1996. The Spanish women are making their 3rd appearance at the world cup finals. Their best performance was getting into the Round of 16 at Canada 2019 where USA beat the country 2-1 at Reins on 24th June.
Netherlands are in their 3rd appearances; were runners-up at the last competition, France 2019 and were defeated 2-0 by USA at Lyonnais and made the round of 16 at Canada 2015.
Spain is playing at the quarters for the first time. She scored three more goals in their last three matches which is 10 goals, than they did in their first eight combined.
Spain scored five goals each in two their four matches at this tournament beating Zambia at the group stages 5-0 and hitting Switzerland 5-1 in the round of 16. Only USA in 1991 ever scored 5+ goals in three games at a single tournament.
Netherlands is playing her second quarterfinals at the world cup after 2019 when she lost 0-2 to Italy.
Netherlands won their three games played against European sides at the world cup keeping three clean sheets two of those three were in the quarterfinals 2-0 over Italy in 2019 and 1-0 over Sweden at the semifinal same year.
We are still expecting the second quarterfinals to be played at Eden Park same Friday at 0830 hours and it will be Japan versus Sweden.
The other two quarterfinal matches shall be decided on Saturday August 12. Co-hosts Australia will slug it out with France at Suncorp Stadium at 0800 hours with South African Ref, Victor Gomes in charge.
At 1130 hours plying at Stadium Australia will be the Lionesses of England that defeated Nigeria and the Power-Puff girls of Columbia with Ref Mark Geiger of USA in charge.
By Eniola Olatunji
Pep Guardiola has explained the reason for Manchester City’s resurgence as they push for the Premier League title.
The win lifts City to 64 points from 31 games, cutting the deficit to leaders Arsenal—who have 70 points from 32 matches—to just six points, ramping up the title race in the closing stages of the campaign.
Asked why Manchester City have been in such fine form in the final stages of the season, Pep Guardiola joked: “The sun! If it had been shining in November, we’d have been league champions by January… No, I’m joking, of course. In Manchester, the sun doesn’t shine very often.”
Looking ahead to next Sunday’s 32nd-round clash with Arsenal in the Premier League, he added: “That game will feel like a final for both teams, but there is a tactical detail we need to review, so we may make some adjustments.
“Everyone is talking about the Arsenal game, but matches against Brentford, Bournemouth and the other sides are just as important. The season is still long.”
Guardiola added “We’re in better shape, and in training everyone knows exactly what they have to do. We’ve faced three strong opponents, three Champions League teams. We didn’t put in a complete performance for the full 90 minutes, but we were organised enough, didn’t concede many chances, and our attacking threat was always there.”
Pep Guardiola
He added:One of our secrets as a club and a system is that, after one success after another, we have remained humble and have always asked ourselves: what must we do to stay at the top? Winning once or twice is normal, but to remain at the top for nine years—with the exception of last season—reflects the strength of the entire system.”
After trimming the gap to six points with a game in hand, Doku emphasized that City is confident, focused, and ready for the final.
“Obviously, three points here, in a tough game, we did very well. We needed those three points,” Doku told the club’s website.
“So we’re just going to keep on going, keep on going. We know that we still have everything in our hands. We’re going to recover well and we look forward to the game on Sunday.
“Coming here is not easy, playing here against Chelsea in their stadium is not easy. We just had to keep on going.
“We adapted our pressing a bit and more runs in behind, that opens more spaces. The way we started the second half also put a lot of pressure on them. In those moments when you can score it helps a lot.”
Real Madrid has stated that rumors on considering incorporating a sports director into its structure are categorically false.
According to Fabrizio Romano’s X post on Friday, the club was quoted as saying, “Real Madrid extraordinarily values the work that the club’s sports management has been carrying out, which has allowed us to live through one of the most successful periods in our entire history with the achievement of numerous titles, including 6 European Cups in ten years.”
It strongly reaffirm confidence in its current sporting management structure.
It also praise the existing leadership, crediting it for one of the most successful eras in the club’s history.
As evidence, they point to major achievements, including six UEFA Champions League titles in the last decade.
Overall, it’s a standard club statement aimed at shutting down speculation while reinforcing trust in their current internal setup.
Madrid have long operated with a distinct organisational model, where key transfer and sporting decisions are primarily overseen by senior executives and trusted football leadership rather than a traditional sporting director structure common in many European clubs.
The club’s denial comes amid continued speculation in Spanish football media about potential internal changes, particularly as elite clubs across Europe increasingly adopt centralized sporting director systems to streamline recruitment and long-term squad planning.
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