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By Mitch Phillips
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Over 74% of possession, 1,137 badists and total territorial dominance, but the only statistic that matters for Spain is the two penalties that 's in it. they missed after being strangled
Igor Akinfeev badumed Yuri Gagarin's instant status by saving two of Spain's shots on goal. However, in reality, it was about the only time the Russian goalkeeper was seriously tested, even though the teammates were stuck in their own half for most of the 120 minutes, the 2010 champions have managed only nine shots.
Spain reached the pinnacle of this sport at the back of a game built on incessant pbades aligned with a bottomless patience and faith that they would always end up to find a path.
On Sunday, this patience proved their defeat against a desperately tired and withered 16-year-old opponent who should be ripe to be cut into pieces.
Instead, Spain seemed totally unable to increase the pace since, little by little,, through a gradual realization that their high-ranking rivals were not actually dangerous, to the eventual delusional celebration.
With 35 minutes on the clock Spain had made 300 pbades to 63 of Russia, but had not muster The only goal of Sergei Ignashevich was to achieve a single goal and not to lead it only through the comical goal of Sergei Ignashevich
Russia intended to sit down and let the ball caress itself in front of him. approach like, with Andres Iniesta surprisingly dropped on the bench, none of the Spaniards seemed to want or able to inject that moment of acceleration or inspiration that has been their hallmark for a decade.
So an impbade ensued A rare attack Russia found the way thanks to a penalty from Artem Dzyuba in the 41st minute, after a Gerard Pique corner
After the break, he There was little change, forcing coach Fernando Hierro to introduce Iniesta. With Russia withdrawing Dzyuba, the hosts played the final half hour of regulation time without anyone leaving the field as an excursion, and the 10-man championship contented themselves with sitting down even more deeply while Spain pursued his possession. Exhaustion
EXHAUSTION
The local crowd welcomed the arrival of extra time as they had won the World Cup, but Spain, seeing many of their rivals falling to the ground with cramps and exhaustion, were no doubt confident that the attackers would eventually crack when they continued to roll the ball from one side to the other.
The Russians, who covered more ground per player than any other group in the group stage, deserve a huge credit for their tight work. and close all threats. In reality, the limited and slow movement of the Spanish leading men made the task easier than it should have been.
They held on well as the extra time reached half-way and summoned a final Herculean effort. A few minutes later, Spain finally seemed to be aware of the difficult situation that awaited them.
In preparation for their first penalty shoot-out, coach Stanislav Cherchesov would be hard pressed to find five men with enough energy to take a penalty. It only took him four after Akinfeev's heroism completed one of the World Cup World Cup top performances and sent Russia to the quarter-finals
(Report by Mitch Phillips, edited by Christian Radnedge) [19659020]
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