One step away from a World Cup final, Argentina are hoping for Angel Di Maria to recover from a thigh injury in time for Wednesday’s semi-final clash against the Netherlands.
The Real Madrid winger strained the back of his right thigh in Argentina's 1-0 win over Belgium and was to undergo medical tests on Sunday to discover the extent of the injury.
After Lionel Messi, Di Maria has been Argentina’s most- influential player in Brazil.
Brazil
The Brazilian football confederation is trying to convince Fifa’s disciplinary commission “to annul the yellow card unjustly shown” to captain Thiago Silva during a 2-1 victory over Colombia, a caution that was his second offence and means he is banned from the semi-final against Germany.
Fifa spokesman Delia Fischer said the disciplinary committee is “analysing materials” submitted by the confederation.
Silva was shown a yellow while impeding Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina’s attempt to kick the ball downfield. Yellow cards traditionally cannot be overturned.
Germany
Team officials are encouraging the side to do what no German team have done since the 1996 Euros and win a major championship.
“I can only urge you to go and reward yourselves,” said Wolfgang Niersback of the German football association.
“Reward yourselves by doing in this last week exactly what you have been doing so far. You have it in you and we all want to return again to the Maracana in Rio. Let’s stick together because then we can land the big coup.”
Joachim Loew, the coach, said: “We will now try to take that next step. The team is strong and stable. In the past five World Cup and Euros we reached the semis. Now it’s time at this semi-final to move a step further.”
Costa Rica
Jorge Luis Pinto, the coach, said Costa Rica leave the tournament knowing they were never beaten in open play in their run to the World Cup quarter-finals.
“Many people didn’t believe in us, but we have seen we can achieve wonderful things,” Pinto said. “We’ve played great powerhouses of football and we haven’t been beaten, even if we have to leave the tournament now. That’s very important for us.”
The Central American nation of 4.8 million people defeated Uruguay and Italy, and drew with England, Greece and the Netherlands.
“We’ve shown we were never afraid to play big powerhouses,” Pinto said.
Belgium
Marc Wilmots, the Belgium coach, said his players return home from Brazil with a sense of missed chances despite reaching the last eight, where they lost 1-0 to Argentina.
“We could have and should have done much more,” said left-back Jan Vertonghen, probably Belgium’s best player in Brazil.
It was a view shared by Wilmots. “We felt we were on the verge of something big,” he said.
France
More than 200 fans greeted the France team at the airport as they returned from Brazil on Sunday, attitudes vastly changed from four years ago, when French players went on strike in South Africa and caused national embarrassment.
This time, France reached the quarter-finals.
“We are proud of what they did, what they accomplished and we’ve very proud that their new image has erased the past,” said Melanie Petit, who was among the supporters at the airport.
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