Two semifinals that on paper looked like being two enthralling contests, with plenty of goals and nerve-jangling drama. At the end of the day, one proved to the be the most one-sided match at this World Cup, while the other was as dull as they come with even the penalty shootout, usually so filled with theatre, also failing to invoke too many nail-biting moments.
The end result of those two semifinals is a final between Germany and Argentina, while Brazil and the Netherlands fight it out for the nobody-really-cares third place in the playoff on Saturday.
Here is a quick review of the semifinals, including the full results and goalscorers (the first one will be a long one).
Brazil vs Germany: An entire nation waiting with baited breath to see their heroes take that sixth step towards the ultimate final every single Brazil fan has dreamed of – and after 30 minutes, nightmare seemed like a lovely little stuffed toy that you just want to hug and sleep with and never let go.
There hasn't been a more damning result for Brazil in their history, and Germany looked near invincible against the home side, who just, plain and simple, went to pieces. Emotions can take hold of you sometimes and overwhelm you in such a manner that it pummels you into submission – those emotions, which saw the Brazil players cry before and after pretty much every game, eventually got the better of them.
Brazil were already fragile after losing their talisman Neymar to injury, and the fact that none of the players, who also drastically missed their skipper Thiago Silva on that awful evening, were able to move forward from the recent trauma only made them easy prey for this German machine, who, in a six-minute blitz, sent an entire nation into collective depression.
Full Result: Brazil (Oscar 90') 1-7 Germany (Thomas Muller 11', Miroslav Klose 23', Toni Kroos 24', 26', Sami Khedira 29', Andre Schurrle 69', 79').
Netherlands vs Argentina: The two teams cancelled each other out, and then some, with neither able to even remotely trouble either goalkeeper as the defences won the battle by an absolute mile. It was a pity that the likes of Lionel Messi and Arjen Robben, two of the best players at this World Cup, were unable to produce any moments of magic that we have come to associate with them.
Despite having plenty of attacking prowess, neither the Netherlands nor Argentina could find their goalscoring mojo.
The end result was a turgid, cagey and tactical-is-fine-but-not-this-tactical 0-0 scoreline at the end of 120 minutes. Penalty shootout it went to, and with Louis Van Gaal not having anymore substitutions to make, Tim Krul could not come in and recreate his heroics from the quarterfinal against Croatia.
Jasper Cillessen showed why he was not as highly rated as Krul in the penalty-saving stakes and Sergio Romero stepped up with two saves of his own, one of them a pretty good one to keep Wesley Sneijder from scoring, to send Argentina into the final against Germany in Rio De Janeiro.
Full Result: Netherlands 0-0 Argentina (Argentina win 4-2 on penalties).
