Germany 4 England 1
Remember the 1966 World Cup Final when Geoff Hurst’s shot struck the crossbar, bounced over the line, and spun back into the field of play? Remember Zinedine Zidane’s penalty kick goal in the 2006 World Cup Final against Italy? Both goals counted, but in this match, a similar goal was waved off.
In the 38th minute of the match, Frank Lampard’s shot landed well over a foot past the goal line, but referee Jorge Larrionda refused to award the goal; Germany was up 2-1 at the time.
Thomas Muller would score two second-half goals in a three-minute span to lift Germany to a 4-1 victory over England.
Miroslav Klose (20th minute) and Lukas Podolski (32nd minute) each scored a goal in the first half for Germany. Matthew Upson scored in the 37th minute for England after receiving a centering pass from Steven Gerrard.
Argentina 3 Mexico 1
As if we haven’t seen enough referee miscues already, we get our second one of the day that involves a scoring situation. In the 26th minute, Carlos Tevez scored on a header after receiving a pass from Lionel Messi; despite the fact that replays showed Tevez was offsides, referee Roberto Rosetti of Italy let the goal stand.
There was no controversy on Argentina’s second goal as Gonzalo Higuain scored in the 33rd minute following a bad giveaway by Mexico’s Ricardo Osorio; Higuain, the tournament’s leading scorer, now has four goals in this World Cup.
Tevez added his second goal of the match in the 52nd minute after unleashing an unstoppable blast from 25 yards out.
Mexico avoided the shutout when Javier Hernandez scored in the 71st minute.
The Argentines will advance to the quarterfinals for the third time in the past four World Cups; they defeated the Mexicans in the second round for the second consecutive World Cup. The Mexicans, on the other hand, conceded three goals in a World Cup match for the first time since 1978.
Lionel Messi did not score a goal in this game; he has now attempted 27 shots without scoring even once, which is the most among all players in this tournament. England’s Frank Lampard, who technically should have been awarded that goal in the earlier game, is the only other player to attempt at least 15 shots and not score a goal (Lampard shot the ball twenty times in this tournament).
Argentina will face Germany in the quarterfinals.
