Source: The Sangai Express
Johannesburg, July 05 2010:
Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz expects Spain will find it tough to beat red-hot Germany in Wednesday's World Cup semifinal in Durban.
The Manchester City forward said the European champions were not much better than Paraguay in their hard-fought 1-0 win at Ellis Park on Saturday.
It took David Villa's fifth goal of the tournament seven minutes from time to secure passage into the last four for the Spaniards, but Santa Cruz expects the going will get even tougher for them against Germany.
"I think we needed a little more luck and we showed that we could have won," said Santa Cruz, who had a couple of late chances when he came on as substitute for the last 18 minutes.
"Spain weren't better than us, anything but, and we had our chances during the course of the game.
"Spain still have a little way to go and they now play Germany, who showed a great display against Argentina, so it will be a very tough game for Spain again" .
It was a far from convincing performance from Spain, who made history by reaching the World Cup semifinals for the first time after finishing fourth in the 1950 tournament when there was no semifinal format.
Both goalkeepers saved second-half penalties before Villa's late intervention ended Paraguay's quest to reach the semifinals for the first time.
"We've got the team to keep on progressing but we have to accept our fate," he said.
"We are very disappointed and it was frustrating to lose.
We thought we played a great game and things didn't work out at the end.
"We are very proud to finish with that kind of performance we showed against Spain" .
Paraguay's Argentine coach Gerardo Martino claimed after the match he was expecting an apology from FIFA following his team's defeat.
Martino was angered by a pair of decisons that went against his team and potentially cost them victory.
"I should say that some decisions could have changed the course of the match," he said.
"There was the first half goal scored by (Nelson) Valdez and also the penalty.
Perhaps there was a foul but then perhaps he should have been sent off" .
Martino added sarcastically: "Maybe FIFA will apologise for that, say thank you to FIFA for apologising to us.
"I thought we gave everything we had to give.
We had our chances but unfortunately Spain went through and not Paraguay.
That's football" .