ROUND OF 16: SPAIN 1 PORTUGAL 0:THE SPAIN coach, Vicente del Bosque, said his side were "looking to create history" after eliminating Portugal from the World Cup with their 1-0 victory in Cape Town last nigh.
David Villa scored the only goal of the game after 63 minutes but it was the introduction of Fernando Llorente five minutes earlier that had sparked the European champions into life.
The Athletic Bilbao forward immediately created two golden chances after coming on for a subdued Fernando Torres and Portugal were unable to cope with his physical presence.
“We felt comfortable but you have to be careful because things can change quickly,” Del Bosque said.
“We know we’re working well, we want to create a bit of history.”
Until the introduction of Llorente, Spain had failed to trouble a resolute Portuguese defence but it was a passing move of sublime quality that finally unlocked Carlos Queiroz’s team. Xabi Alonso, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez were all involved in the sequence that set up the newly recruited Barcelona forward to score.
To make matters worse for Queiroz, Portugal had Ricardo Costa sent off with one minute left to play for raising his arm against Spain defender Joan Capdevila.
Spain will now play Paraguay in Johannesburg on Saturday night after the South Americans beat Japan on penalties earlier yesterday.
Villa said: “We’re taking it step by step. We’ve left a very difficult rival behind. We know the potential we have. [Paraguay] are another difficult rival.”
Portugal offered little in way of attacking threat and thus Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup ended on a low.
The Real Madrid forward – and Portugal’s captain – was anonymous throughout the game and leaves the tournament in South Africa without having scored a goal.
GuardianService
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)