Spain managed to beat Germany 1-0 thanks to a goal from Carlos Puyol in the 74th minute and will now take on the Netherlands in the final which is to be held on the 11th of July.

Spain had an easy opportunity in the 6th minute, when Pedro beat Manuel Neuer but failed to pass the ball to David Villa who could have easily scored.

Germany was weakened by the absence of Mueller who has been a star for them. Mueller was suspended for the semi-final game and his presence was clearly missed. Both teams played competitive football during the first half but neither team managed to score.

Spain played Pedro in the starting lineup in place of the Fernando Torres who has been in poor form. The Spaniards were delighted to secure a win against the Germans and qualify for their first ever final.

Spain’s coach Del Bosque said “Our players carried out their job in a magnificent way. From defense through to attack I think we played a great game”. Bosque was already looking forward to the final when they take on the Dutch. He went on to say that his team was in great shape and after training together for 30 days his players wanted to make history by winning the world cup.

When reporters asked Spain’s defender Gerard Pique if his team was worried about the Netherlands, Pique said “The Netherlands have a lot of good players - [Arjen] Robben, [Robin] Van Persie, [Wesley] Sneijder - and we have to try to stop them. But at the same time we need to play our game, to pass the ball around like we know we can, and create chances.”

For Germany, it was another world cup semi final defeat. Coach Joachim Lowe said “Of course we are disappointed, as you inevitably are when you lose a semi-final. They showed that tonight with the way they circulated the ball very quickly and we were not able to reproduce the kind of play we did in previous matches.”

Most experts predict that Spain will win the final against Holland as they have a bunch of technically strong players. Yet the brilliance of Arjen Robben and the dangerous Sneijder must not be taken lightly.

Robben told reporters “This Dutch team is simply a great squad. We need only one more victory now. We're almost there. I recently lost a big final on club level and I won't let this happen again.”