Substitute Salma Paralluelo scored an extra-time winner to raise Spain to a nervy 2-1 victory over the Netherlands and into the semi-finals of the Girls’s World Cup for the primary time.
The 19-year-old Barcelona winger broke the 1-1 impasse on Friday when she latched onto a by ball, reduce a Dutch defender inside and outside and unleashed a shot that clanged off the publish into the online.
“It’s essential for everybody,” Paralluelo stated after the sport. “Now we have succeeded. Now we have fought till the top. Now we have believed.”
The sixth-ranked La Roja, who had not superior previous the spherical of 16 in two earlier two World Cup appearances, will face both Japan or Sweden for a spot within the ultimate in Auckland on Tuesday.
All of the targets got here late in a good sport with Mariona Caldentey scoring Spain’s first from a penalty kick within the 81st minute after Dutch defender Stefanie van der Gragt had dealt with the ball contained in the field.
Van der Gragt, in her ultimate match earlier than retirement, earned some redemption when she equalised within the 91st minute to ship the competition to additional time in entrance of 32,021 followers at Wellington Regional Stadium.
The ninth-ranked Dutch, who have been runners-up to america 4 years in the past in France, turned the newest match favourites eradicated in a match stuffed with upsets, with the US, Germany, Canada and Brazil already gone.
“It’s arduous now,” van der Gragt stated after the sport.
“We had the prospect in additional time and we didn’t rating, that they had one probability and so they scored. That’s soccer.”
The Dutch had goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar to thank for not falling behind within the seventeenth minute after she made a superb diving save to bat Alba Redondo’s close-range header onto the publish.
The ball bounced again to Redondo, who pinged a second try off the identical woodwork.
Spain continued to dominate possession and appeared to have been rewarded with a purpose within the thirty seventh minute when Redondo had bother controlling a cross in entrance of the online, however Esther Gonzalez poked it in from an offside place.
The Dutch have been poised to have fun a penalty within the sixty fourth minute after ahead Lineth Beerensteyn collided with defender Irene Paredes within the space however once more VAR intervened.
Beerensteyn had a number of wonderful scoring possibilities, however the Juventus striker fired one shot extensive of the online and one other simply over the crossbar.
Spain’s historic progress comes regardless of an unsightly participant revolt within the build-up to the match.
Fifteen gamers declared themselves unavailable for choice in September, saying occasions with the nationwide crew had impacted their emotional and bodily well being. They directed the majority of complaints at coach Jorge Vilda.
The Spanish federation backed the coach however solely six of the mutineers returned to play on the World Cup.
“As you may see we’re all celebrating,” Spain coach Jorge Vilda stated. “We proceed to make historical past. It was a sport tougher than it might have been.
“It’s unbelievable how we have now continued to wrestle as we have now within the face of adversity. We needed to maintain believing.”
His Dutch counterpart Andries Jonker stated his crew had proved within the match that it deserved to be among the many high groups on the planet.
“We did our greatest. We tried to camouflage our weaknesses and present out strengths, however there’s just one answer: You might have it’s important to play ahead, it’s important to get the ball, keep on the ball, make the sport,” he stated.
“What we confirmed throughout this match, typically it was implausible, typically it was lower than that.”
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