England 1 Ecuador 0
Beckham bent it. A free kick that just slid inside the right post past keeper Christian Moras was the difference in this game, which saw England play just well enough to not lose. England to face the winner of Netherland-Portugal on Friday.
Portugal 1 Netherlands 0
Maniche scored off a marvelous individual effort in traffic to give Portugal a 1-0 lead. The Russian referee, Valentin Ivanov lost control of this game in the first half. This game became damn nasty. After four red cards, two to each team, with a brawl nearly tearing the game apart in the 73rd minute, and a record tying sixteen yellow cards were handed out during the game, Portugal won a nasty ugly game in a semi-upset. Portugal had beaten Netherlands in the EuroCup 2004 semifinals.
Italy 1 Australia 0
Playing ten men to eleven after a red card to Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute, Italy held Australia scoreless into stoppage time at the end of the second half before scoring on a Totti penalty kick in the 94th minute.
Ukraine 3 Switzerland 0
The teams exchanged shots off the crossbar in the first half, but neither was able to beat the goalkeeper inb regulation time despite very exciting and aggressive (and clean! only one yellow card in regulation!) play from both sides. The game went into penalty kicks and Ukraine hit three against a keeper who had scored three clean sheets in the preliminary round, thus advancing to face Italy on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
England
Ecuador
Portugal
Netherlands
ItalyAustralia
Switzerland
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World Cup
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