Villa's Goal, Farewell Cristiano Ronaldo

Images by El Universo

the Spanish national team qualified yesterday into the quarterfinals after beating Portugal with a 1 - 0 score in a match that could have defined both teams into the next round. Barcelona's David Villa scored the insolite goal for the Spanish, thus according to several angles he was offside, in which these situations have been happening already with England and Mexico. The Spanish suffered for at least an hour but it ended when Villa dramatically shot from a clear ball from Portuguese goalkeeper Eduardo, Villa took advantage of that clearing shooting the ball with much potency and gave the Spanish team joy and tears that earn their victory. With this result, Villa puts Spain in the top eight teams in the world and now will face South American team Paraguay in Johannesburg, who beat Japan 5 - 3 in the penalty kicks. The match was for both teams, but both sides showed much precaution in their defense, even though Spain was dominating throughout the whole match trying to create ideas to penetrate through the Portuguese wall leaded by Ricardo Carvalho.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo unsettled the net guarded by Real Madrid's Iker Casillas sometimes, but mostly it went through Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol to reject the Portuguese out of the area. While time was running out, the Spanish team was losing the control and rythm of the game, with imprecise passes and kept losing momentum of the match, while the Portuguese went through all the places to beat the Spanish defense. In the second half, Hugo Almeida attempted a good shot from behind the area where Puyol cleared with his leg in the 52 minute. Spain's coach Vicente Del Bosque substituted Fernando Llorente with Fernando Torres, showing the Liverpool striker lack of physical form in this tournament lacking goal opportunities. With Llorente's entrance in the field, the Spanish team strenghten its offensive movements.

With the time, Andres Iniesta passed in the Portugese area, that's where Xavi Hernandez managed to touch the ball from behind and have David Villa's quick appearance shoot but then rejected by Eduardo, luckily Villa managed to shoot again and sentenced the match that leaded into victory over Portugal in the 63 minute. After the scoring goal, Spain was dominating for the rest of the match, lacking ideas for Portugal to at least time the game.