Mon, June 22, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Thundering horns in the Free State Stadium of South African city Bloemfontein brought good luck to both Spain and host South Africa on Saturday as both advanced into the semifinals.
The 2-0 victory by Spain was not only good enough for the European champions, but also secured the flop side a slot in last four thanks to a goalless draw in the Iraq-New Zealand matchup.
By defeating Bafana Bafana with two goals, European champion Spain set a new record.
The victory improved Spain's winning run to 15, breaking the previous record of 14 shared by Australia from 1996 to 1997, Brazil in 1997 and France from 2003 to 2004.
Spain also equaled the world record of 35 games unbeaten established by Brazil between 1993 and 1996.
Both sides, however, have qualified for the semifinals of the intercontinental tournament, as Asian champion Iraq and its Oceanian counterpart New Zealand ended up 0-0 in South Africa's economic hub of Johannesburg on Saturday.
David Villa offered Spain the lead in the 52nd minute as he took a high cross on the chest and hit it into the bottom right corner. Twenty minutes later, the pride of Spaniards was whipped up again as substitute Fernando Llorente fired inside the near post.
Substitute Katlego Mashego raised the hope of home fans at the very end of the match as he dodged Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina and shot the ball into the net. But the goal was not counted as Mashego had been obviously offside, leaving South Africa awaiting the result of the Iraq-New Zealand match.
South African coach Joel Santana had said ahead of the match that it would be a fantastic opportunity to play against one of the best teams on the planet.
Spain's coach Vicente del Bosque seemed happy with the way things were going.
"Winning 15 matches in a row is a huge success by this team and we want to go on like this," Del Bosque added.
Spain's semifinal opponent has not been decided as African champion Egypt astounded the world by defeating World Cup winner Italy 1-0 in Thursday's group match.
Any of four Group B teams has a chance to march into the next stage.
Iraq's draw with New Zealand in the other Group A match crushed the hope of the Asian champion to progress to the second stage but ignited the celebrations of South African fans.
New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert appeared satisfied with the first pointwon in their nine Confederations Cup games.
"I think tonight was another milestone for the country," he said. "We proved a few doubters wrong with the way we played."
Milutinovic was satisfied with the way things went, too.
"Normally I am not happy when my side doesn't go through, but what they did and the way they played makes me very happy. They are moral victors," he said.
The final round of Group B match will be held on Sunday in Rustenburg and Pretoria, pitting Egypt against the United States and Italy against Brazil.
