Our analyst tells GARY LIM Argentina did little to suggest they can win the final
SEMI-FINAL
HOLLAND 0
ARGENTINA 0
Argentina win 4-2 on penalties.
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Argentina laboured to a penalty shootout win without scoring a goal in 120 minutes.
Do you think they can stop Germany in the final?
It will be extremely difficult for Argentina.
They will do what they did yesterday morning, and that is to deny the Germans space and hope for a lucky break, or a moment of magic from Lionel Messi.
Argentina have a solid defence. Ezequiel Garay and Martin Demichelis were brilliant in central defence.
Marcos Rojo and Pablo Zabaleta excelled in the fullback positions and, on top of that, they had Javier Mascherano in front of them providing protection.
Germany will dictate the midfield, no one can stop that.
Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella's plan will be to hold out, and wait for the chance to catch the opponents on the counter-attack.
Defensively, I feel Argentina are stronger than the Germans, so this will be their best chance.
Could Holland have done more against Argentina?
They plotted their own downfall.
Putting Nigel de Jong as the defensive midfielder was a waste.
Louis van Gaal had already deployed three centre halves in Stefan de Vrij, Ron Vlaar and Bruno Martins Indi.
He also had Daley Blind and Dirk Kuyt on the defensive flanks.
When you add de Jong to the mix, Holland effectively had six at the back, leaving them with four players in attack.
Of the defensive six, Blind is the only player who is good on the ball.
So, throughout the game, Holland were unable to offer anything much going forward.
They simply couldn't thread proper passes through to the forwards.
The team just didn't have the chance to break.
They tweaked the tactics after half-time, but the improvement was slight.
They paid the price for being far too cautious.
Lionel Messi finally gets to play in a World Cup final.
Do you see him lighting up the final?
If you looked at yesterday morning's game, you can see that a lot was asked of Messi.
This article was first published on July 11, 2014.
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