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Germany And Brazil To Face Off In World Cup Semifinals

Brazil's players celebrate after winning the World Cup quarter-final football match between Brazil and Colombia on Friday.
Vanderlei Almeida
/
AFP/Getty Images
Brazil's players celebrate after winning the World Cup quarter-final football match between Brazil and Colombia on Friday.

After the first round of World Cup quarterfinal matches, Brazil and Germany will advance and face each other on Tuesday.

Brazil vs. Colombia

It had been an impressive World Cup for Colombia, going further than many expected, but they couldn't hold off the assault from World Cup host Brazil, whose 2-1 victory is sending them to the semifinals for the first time in 12 years.

An early goal from Thiago Silva gave Brazil an early lead in the seventh minute that they held for the first half. They stretched that lead even further in the second half with a long-range goal from David Luiz in minute 68.

Colombia gained some momentum after a penalty kick from star James Rodríguez put them on the scoreboard in the 80th minute, but it wasn't enough.

Some bad news for Brazil however, as one of the team's star players, Neymar, was taken to a hospital after the game. Neymar exited the match after a collision with Juan Zuniga. According to the Associated Press, Brazil's team doctor says Neymar is out of the World Cup with a broken vertebrae.

As an aside, many people are buzzing over what seems like a giant locust landed on Rodríguez before the penalty kick and then flew off and short time after. Check it out:

Germany vs. France

Germany defeated France 1-0 Friday to advance to the semifinal of soccer's World Cup in Brazil.

The lone goal at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium came in the first half — a header from Mats Hummels in the 13th minute, off a Toni Kroos free kick.

Germany will face the winner of the Brazil-Colombia quarterfinal, which will be played later Friday at the Estadio Caselao in Fortaleza. That game will be Germany's fourth consecutive semifinal appearance at a World Cup, a run that began in 2002.

Germany has advanced through the tournament with relative ease: It beat Portugal 4-0 at the start of the tournament, drew with Ghana 2-2, defeated the U.S. 1-0 and beat Algeria 2-1.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.