Keeping all the focus on the World Cup title, Spain and Netherlands are going to face each other in the tournament final on 11 July at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. Both sides are looking for their first ever World Cup gory and are ready to give more than hundred percent to clinch the title.
Time
The match begins at 18:30 GMT and 20:30 local time.
Live Score
Football fans can get the live score of the match in the following link:
http://livescore.worldcup.football-data.co.uk/#e_761310
Road to Final
Spain started the tournament with a 1-0 shocking defeat to Switzerland in their opening group match. Now, they could become the first and only team in the history to win the World Cup title after losing the first match of the tournament. Spain bounced back from the defeat winning the next two matches against Honduras and Chile, and finished at the top in Group H.
In the knock out stage, Spain defeated Portugal and Paraguay in the round of 16 and quarter final respectively by the same 1-0 margins, and David Villa scored the solitary goal in each of the two victories. Spain then defeated Germany in the last four thanks to a Carles Puyol strike.
Netherlands won all of their group stage matches for the first time in this tournament. They defeated Denmark, Japan and Cameroon to clinch the top spot of Group E. The Dutch then knocked out Slovakia in the round of 16, before clinching a memorable come-from-back 2-1 victory over the tournament favorite Brazil in the quarter final. Netherlands then defeated Uruguay 3-2 in the semi final to reach the tournament final, their third in the history of World Cup.
Both teams are perhaps the two most underachieved football powerhouses at the moment. Neither of them is yet to taste the World Cup title. Spain’s best finish came when they clinched the fourth place in 1950 World Cup, while Netherlands’ record is a bit better as they were the losing finalists of 1974 and 1978 World Cup tournaments.
Netherlands has been in excellent form recently. The Dutch side now holds a record of winning 14 consecutive matches in World Cup qualifiers and World Cup finals. Moreover, they would become the only second team after 1970’s World Cup winning Brazil side to clinch the World Cup title after winning all the matches of qualifying round and finals.
Spain may not have any great success in the World Cup history, but they are the reigning champion of Europe and could become the first European Champions to win the World Cup title. They have some top class players like David Villa, Xavi and Iniesta, the three key players of Spain’s attacking line up. Spanish defense is also very strong in the presence of two strong center backs in Puyol and Pique. Spain is most likely to play the same eleven featured against Germany.
Netherlands would expect another impressive performance from the Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben. However, holding midfielder Mark van Bommel also possess considerable amount of threat for the Spaniards. He was instrumental behind the recent success of the Dutch in the tournament.
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