SAfter a 2:1 (1:1, 0:0) after extra time against the Netherlands, Spain’s soccer players are in the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time. Salma Paralluelo scored the decisive goal in the second half of extra time in Wellington with a precise shot into the far corner (111th minute).
Maria Caldentey had previously given Spain the lead in New Zealand with a converted penalty kick in the 81st minute. Captain Stefanie van de Gragt, who conceded the penalty against the Netherlands, made it 1-1 ten minutes later. Opponents in the semifinals are either the favored Japanese or the Swedes.
“It’s important for all of us,” said 19-year-old goal scorer Paralluelo. “We made it. We fought to the end. We believed in ourselves.” Coach Jorge Vilda summed it up: “We’re going to keep making history. It was a game that was more difficult than it could have been.” His team “continued to fight” despite the Dutch team’s late equalizer in injury time.
Penalty taken back
The Netherlands coach Andries Jonker, who once worked in the men’s Bundesliga for VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern, said his team had proven to be among the best in the world. “We did our best. We tried to hide our weaknesses and show our strengths, but there is only one solution: you have to play forward, you have to get the ball, stay on the ball and play the game,” he said. “What we showed in this tournament was sometimes fantastic, sometimes not so good.”
Spain was the dominant team for long stretches of the game. In the 17th minute, a double chance gave them the first really good opportunity to take the lead. Alba Redondo’s header deflected Daphne van Domselaar into the post in the Netherlands goal, and the follow-up shot from close range was also stopped by the post. The alleged lead for Spain after 37 minutes by Esther Redondo was not counted by referee Stephanie Frappart from France because of a narrow offside position. The next good chance came right after the break, but it was only the penalty late in the second half that made it possible to make it 1-0, which the Dutch women countered shortly afterwards.
Spain was also very lucky in some scenes, such as a penalty taken back when the score was 0-0 in the second half. After a tip from the VAR team around Tatiana Guzman (Nicaragua) and Germany’s Marco Fritz, referee Frappart looked at the scene on the monitor and surprisingly canceled her penalty kick in the 62nd minute. Lineth Beerensteyn was bumped into by Irene Paredes after a through ball.
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