A lacklust opening 60 minutes finished with a bang at the 2009 Confederations Cup third place match between Spain and hosts South Africa. Commentators stated it looked like the two squads were "going through the motions" early on. That could not be said at the end though.
South Africa finally broke the scoreless stalemate in the 73rd minute when Katlego Mphela sent the home fans into a frenzy when he rifled a ball into the top of the Spanish net. The lead stand up and it looked like South Africa would claim 3rd until the 87th minute when Daniel Guiza evened the game.
Guiza got on the end of a Cazorla cross finding the bottom left corner of the net. Nobody even had time to thnk about overtime as Guiza would give Spain the lead only a minute later when he misfired on a cross from the right side. Instead of the ball heading for the players waiting in the box it floated towards goal where it found the back post and bounced into the net.
The home crowd were shocked and many headed for the exits, but the game was not over. Just 30 seconds from time Mphela would take his free kick well driving a brilliant strike from 35 yards out into the top left corner of the Spanish goal. The match would head to extra time.
The first overtime was uneventful, but Spain would find the winner just minutes into the 2nd period. Xabi Alonso stepped up to take a free kick for Spain and he drove a curling ball to the backpost with players running on. The South African keeper was rooted in his spot and the ball went straight through and into the side netting and with that Spain would claim 3rd place.
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