AP, Sao Paulo :
It’s Argentina’s greatest delight and Brazil’s worst nightmare.
Argentina’s soccer team beat the Netherlands on Wednesday to win a berth in the World Cup championship match – doing it on archrival Brazil’s soil, and just a day after Brazil was humiliated in a 7-1 loss to Germany.
Thousands of Argentina fans who traveled to Brazil for the tournament wept, kissed and raised their hands to the sky when their team won 4-2 on penalty kicks, sending it to the finals for the first time in more than two decades.
“God knows we suffered, but now everything is good,” said a weeping fan Rodrigo Aisen, who sealed the win by giving his girlfriend a long kiss. “Everything is joy!”
The 23-year-old celebrated with 20,000 others in the FIFA Fan Fest watch party in Sao Paulo, following a tense match in which neither team scored until the penalty shootout.
Argentina and Germany will meet in the final on Sunday.
“I had faith that they would win today,” said Maribel Ovieda, 21, who two years ago had a lung transplant because of cystic fibrosis. Her twin sister died from the disease last year.
Her family traveled from Cordoba, Argentina, to see the World Cup, and Ovieda said making the final means more to her than any other sporting achievement.
“Seeing the team in these moments gives me goose bumps. It is something beautiful,” she said.
