Netherlands Beat Costa Rica in Penalty Shootout
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Netherlands dramatically beat Costa Rica 4-3 in penalty shootout and advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final on Sunday.
The Netherlands had numerous chances to score before penalty shootout but were denied by Costa Rica keeper Keylor Navas.
In the final seconds of extra time, Dutch coach Luis van Gaal made a substitution purely for penalty shootout purposes, replacing starter Jasper Cillessen with Tim Krul.
In the shootout, Celso Borges scored first for Costa Rica and Robin Van Persie just beat goalkeeper Keylor Navas with his rolling shot inside the right post. Krul easily stopped Bryan Ruiz's weak penalty and Arjen Robben gave the Dutch a 2-1 lead by calmly hitting the upper left corner.
Giancarlo Gonzalez evened the shootout at 2-2 for Costa Rica. Wesley Sneijder successfully went right to give Netherlands the lead back at 3-2, and Christian Bolanos also went right to knot things again at 3-3.
But after Dirk Kuyt grazed the left post with his penalty to make it 4-3 Netherlands, Krul read Michael Umana's penalty perfectly, diving to his left to punch it away.
The Netherlands will face Argentina in the semi-final on July 10.