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