Day 6

When it comes to World cups, Spain have the tag of a perennial under-achievers but against the Ukraine, they showed what they are capable of. Though there were numerous wrong offside calls against Shevchenko, that does not undermine Spain's fantastic 4-0 win. As soon as Xabi Alonso headed in the opener, it had all the markings of a high scoring game. But unfortunately, all the goals came from Spain and left Ukraine wounded. If there was an award for the best team goal, I would have to say it goes to the Spaniards for their 4th goal. Puyol was the architect and he weaved through the Ukraine midfield and Torres finished it with aplomb. A 4-0 hammering was not what the Ukrainians had in mind, but on the field only one team played and the other struggled to cope up with the heat and the Spanish pace. Will this be Spain's tournament finally?Or will they fail to stamp their authority yet again?
Spain 4-0 Ukraine
13-Alonso(SPA), 17,48(Pen)-Villa(SPA), 81-Torres(SPA)

Saudi Arabia against Tunisia pitted the minnows of this group, and not much was expected - atleast I did not - but it proved to be a cracker! This has, by far, been the most thrilling game of the World Cup so far. When Sami Al-Jaber came on and scored - late, late in the second half -for the Saudi's to make the score 2-1, the game looked like it was in their bag. But Roger Lemerrs's Tunisia had other ideas and Bolton's Jaidi headed in a dramatic equaliser deep into injury time. The draw gave both the teams a deserved point.
Saudi Arabia 2-2 Tunisia
23-Jaziri(TUN), 57-Al Kahtani(KSA), 84-Al Jaber(KSA), 90-Jaidi(TUN)

The Hosts, Germany, walked onto the field with high hopes as they had been able to put 4 goals behind a porous Costa Rican defence in the first game and were keen to make their mark again. The Polish, on the other hand, were beaten 2-0 by Uruguay and had to make amends by winning this. The game started with good chances for either side but the finish was never there at either end. Notably Germany had good chances to go ahead but somehow Klose and Podolski were not quite able to get the result. With the game heading to a 0-0 draw, which would give Poland some hope of making to the next round, Neuville latched on to a low cross to slide it home in the first minute of injury time. Germany have one foot in the next round now and will be keeping an eye on the other groups to see who they might have to face first in the knockout round. They could atleast take heart that their much criticized defence managed to keep the poles at bay. Looks like Germany is not gonna be one of the big name casualties.
Germany 1-0 Poland
90-Neiville(GER)