Semi Final: Germany 0 - Spain 1

Spain reached the World Cup final for the first time after a second-half header from Carles Puyol secured a narrow victory over Germany after an intriguing match in Durban.

Vicente del Bosque's side won their third straight game 1-0 and will now play the Netherlands in Sunday's final at Soccer City.

Spain deserved their victory after controlling huge periods of the match, but once again it was far from a vintage performance.

Del Bosque's team improved on their scrappy performance against Paraguay in the previous round but still struggled to carve out clear openings.

The winning goal came when Puyol showed great determination to atone for a poor first-half miss by heading home Xavi's corner with 17 minutes remaining.

The Euro 2008 champions, who defeated Germany 1-0 in the final of that competition, should have scored a second after striking with the sort of counter-attack that had been a trademark of their opponents' play in this competition, but Pedro failed to pick out a completely unmarked Fernando Torres.