FIFA.com - The matches of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Spain defeats Paraguay

There were three quarter-final matches which paired European teams against South Americans. The Euros won all three. As a result, only the scrappy team from Uruguay is left in the semis from the four South American teams which made the quarters. The remaining matches (with pre-cup rankings in parens): Uruguay (16) vs Netherlands (4), Germany (6) vs Spain (2).

Uruguay managed to make the semis by virtue of an incredibly easy draw. In the round of sixteen they defeated Korea (rated #47 in the world), and then managed to knock off Ghana (rated #32). In the group stage they defeated Mexico (#17) and South Africa (#83). They have won four of their five games, but their only really impressive accomplishment was the one they did not win, a 0-0 tie against France.

World number one Brazil was knocked out by The Netherlands; number three Portugal was defeated by Spain; number seven Argentina and number eight England each lost to Germany, convincingly in both cases. Numbers five and nine, the Italians and French, went home with their tails between their legs, having failed to make the round of 16. They each finished last in their preliminary group and neither won a single match. Italy was 0-1-2 and France was 0-2-1.