Tomorrow sees the first of the two semi-finals at this World Cup. I must admit that I feel as though the smash and grab style football of the group stages has been lost a little bit during these knockout games. Maybe it is the occasion but teams seem to be a bit more cautious and careful with their play now that we are closing in on the final.

Hopefully the two games over Tuesday and Wednesday will be a bit better and the sides will provide us with two classic encounters as South America faces off against Europe in each tie.

Brazil have stuttered a bit through this tournament. As hosts they are under huge pressure to win the World Cup and this pressure has shown at times. They will really struggle without Neymar and Thiago Silva and the loss of these two players will ultimately cost them against a German side who look like they have finally figured out how to organise their back four. The Germans have looked very weak at the back with the fullbacks in particular looking very uncomfortable. Thankfully Lahm has now been brought into the back four and that made a real difference against France.

For me the first semi-final will see Brazil being knocked out of their own tournament and Germany progress to the final.

The other game is a bit more difficult to predict. Holland have looked brilliant and rubbish in equal measures and Argentina have been going through the motions a little bit and haven’t really looked like a balanced team. The Dutch will be confident that their frontline could expose a very weak Argentinian defence and I think this will be the difference in the teams.

No European side has ever won the World Cup in South America but I think this will be the year that we will have an all European final.

I really like these prints that were created for each World cup team and you buy them here through World FC.

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