World Cup 2014: Krul conclusion for Costa Rica

WORLD CUP 2014

Preview - Groups A-D - Groups E-H - Complete results

England v Italy - England v Uruguay - England v Costa Rica
Back home - Last 16 - Quarter finals - Semi finals - FINAL

QUARTER FINALS

Fri 04-Jul	FRANCE	0-1	GERMANY	Rio de Janeiro
5pm BBC			Hummels 13
Fri 04-Jul	BRAZIL	2-1	COLOMBIA	Fortaleza
9pm ITV	Thiago Silva 7 David Luiz 69		Rodriguez 80 (pen)
Sat 05-Jul	ARGENTINA	1-0	BELGIUM	Brasilia
5pm ITV	Higuain 8
Sat 05-Jul	NETHERLANDS	0-0	COSTA RICA	Salvador
9pm BBC		aet (4-3pens)

NEWCASTLE UNITED goalkeeper Tim Krul saved two penalties as Netherlands beat surprise package Costa Rica to progress to a semi final against Argentina.

In the other semi final, hosts Brazil face Germany, and so hopes of home World Cup success still remain high.

But the Seleção will have to achieve a sixth world crown without their main striker Neymar who has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a broken bone in his spine.

Overall, the four quarter finals lacked the goals and the outright excitement of the previous rounds - but the Dutch at least provided some late drama.

Held to a 0-0 draw, having hit the woodwork on no fewer than three occasions, Oranje manager Louis van Gaal made a clearly predetermined move at the end of extra time to bring on Krul for Jasper Cillessen.

Krul, who had only saved two out of 20 penalties he had faced at Newcastle, clearly saw himself as the man for the job - and, of course, he was.

The ice-cool Dutchman psyched out the Costa Rican penalty takers, eye-balling them and standing right up against them on the penalty spot before the kick was taken.

Yes, there was perhaps an element of displeasing gamesmanship - but Krul, van Gaal and the Dutch will not care given its sheer effectiveness, as Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umana both had their efforts saved low down to the left.

Netherlands will now play Argentina in the second semi final in Sao Paulo after La Albiceleste ended Belgium's run thanks to Gonzalo Higuain's early strike.

In response, the Belgians were generally disappointing - and Argentina could have won by more if Higuain had scored rather than clipping the top of the bar after dissecting the Diables Rouges' blancmange defence.

Or, indeed, if Lionel Messi had managed to convert a one-on-one chance against the impressive Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois.

As it was, Messi stays level with Neymar and Germany's Thomas Muller on four goals - and they are all now two goals behind leading scorer James Rodriguez.

The Colombian, though, will play no further part in the tournament following Los Cafeteros' elimination against Brazil in Fortaleza.

Always playing catch-up after skipper Thiago Silva's early goal off a corner, Colombia came up against Brazil's best performance of the tournament.

Indeed, the Brazilians could have been out of sight if David Ospina had not saved well on more than one occasion from Hulk - although, of course, Colombia did threaten as well.

An amusing penalty area scramble ended with the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled correctly offside.

But, then shortly after that, a fascinating contest seemed to have been brought to a premature end when David Luiz thumped in a brilliant, dipping free-kick from 25 yards.

That was not quite the case, however, as Colombia won a penalty with 10 minutes left after Carlos Bacca was clearly brought down by Julio Cesar.

Rodriguez coolly converted to keep alive the Colombians' hopes of progression but they could not fashion another guilt-edged chance - and the conclusion to the match was overshadowed by Neymar's injury.

The big questions now is just how will Brazil cope without their young talisman against the wily Germans?

Joachim Low's men have an excellent recent record in major tournaments - but they have won none of them and so will be desperate to shed their nearly men tag, having seen off France.

Again, this was a match settled by an early goal. Mats Hummels headed in a Toni Kroos free-kick on 13 minutes and, from then on, the French were playing catch-up.

In fairness to France, they probably should have forced extra time - but they were let down by some profligate finishing by Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena.

Certainly, this was a better showing from Les Bleus than some of their recent tournament appearances, and it was an important improvement ahead of their hosting of Euro 2016.

Back to the present - and, while the quarter finals were a bit of a let-down, the results have set up the possibility of two classic semi finals on Tuesday and Wednesday.

For a start, between them, Brazil and Germany have won the World Cup eight times - and yet actually only met each other once - in the 2002 Final, won by Brazil.

Meanwhile, Argentina and Netherlands have already played two vintage World Cup matches.

First, there was the 1978 Final, won by Argentina thanks to Mario Kempes's goals - and, then more recently, a quarter final in 1998, won by the Dutch courtesy of that goal by Dennis Bergkamp.

Overall, this has still been a magical tournament, arguably the best World Cup in living memory.

It now needs a fitting finish - either from the home boys Brazil, their sworn enemies Argentina, or from the European challenge in the form of Germany and the Netherlands.

By this time next week, we will be close to finding out the answer just who will be the world champions of the beautiful game. An interesting week awaits.