Record Breaking Last Four

After a truly unpredictable tournament so far, the World Cup semi-finals were finally upon us and the first match up saw the host nation Brazil take on the great pretenders to the title in Germany but what took place over the 90 minutes was a sight to behold.

Germany opened the scoring with a clever tap in from the in-form Muller in the 11th minute before running riot with four goals in six minutes to all but end Brazil's hopes of a home final. Klose made it 2-0 with a strike that made him the all time top scorer in the competition with a record breaking 16th goal with Kroos adding a third just a minute later.

Before Brazil could begin to repair the damage, Kroos struck again in the 26th minute with a superb effort and at 4-0, it was becoming a humiliating evening for the host nation but Germany piled on further punishment when a clever move saw Khedira make it an unbelievable 5-0 in the 29th minute.

Germany pushed for more but were limited to just the five first half goals but a few changes at the interval saw a change of attack and Brazil's nightmare turned worse as a Schurrle came off the bench to score a ten minute brace in the 69th and 79th minutes to make it 7-0 and at this point, it was hard to describe just how good the performance was but the never say die attitude of the Germans came out in the final minutes.

Brazil avoided a complete demolition when Oscar made it 7-1 right at the end but the angered reaction from the German players showed that nilling the hosts would have been a perfect end to the night but even so they will be favourites for Sunday's final in which they will take on Argentina.

The Argentines sealed a place in the final after a truly tight 90 minutes saw them drawing a blank with Holland and the might of the two sides continued as they were unable to be parted after a 30 minute extra time period which meant a penalty shootout.

Holland had to change their traditional shootout lineup after Van Persie had been substituted during the game so Vlaar steeped up first and Romero did well to save the shot with Messi converting easily for a 1-0 lead, Robben levelled for the Dutch with Garay regaining the lead for the Argentines at 2-1. However,  a surprise miss from Sneijder meant when Aguero converted his spot kick, it was 3-1 and the pressure fell on Kuyt who scored superbly to narrow the shootout to 3-2.

The vital winning strike came from Rodriguez who beat Cillessen superbly to secure a 4-2 win and a place in the final while Holland will play Brazil in the 3rd/4th playoff tomorrow night.