PARIS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil pulled off an upset after they beat hosts France 1-0 in a women's soccer quarterfinal of the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Gabi Portilho scored the winner for Brazil in the 82nd minute when she capitalized on a failed clearance by the French side to drive the ball home.
Eight minutes later, the forward almost doubled Brazil's lead after she intercepted a pass from French goalkeeper Constance Picaud and fired a shot against the post.
The French side had the upper hand from the start. In the 16th minute, they were awarded a penalty kick - only to see Sakina Karchaoui's tame shot saved by Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena.
In the 40th minute, French defender Griege Mbock Bathy hit the crossbar with a header.
Brazil, which scraped into the final eight as one of the two best third-placed teams, achieved the win without Marta. The Brazil legend was suspended after she was sent off in their last group game against Spain on Wednesday.
In the semifinal, the South American side will have to face Spain again following their Wednesday's 2-0 loss to the World Cup title holders.
Spain reached the final four after they came back from the brink of exit and beat Colombia on penalties.
The Spanish side scored two second-half goals, including one deep into the injury time, to hold Colombia to 2-2 in the regular time.
Both teams failed to score in the extra time, taking the game into penalty shootout, where Spain held their nerve to overwhelm their South American opponents 4-2.
The other semifinal will pit Germany against the United States.
Germany labored to beat defending champions Canada 4-2 on penalties after both sides fought to a scoreless draw in the regular and extra time.
German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger converted her side's last kick after saving two from Canada in the penalty shootout.
Canada recorded 23 shots including five on goal, while Germany registered only one on goal from 11 shots throughout the game.
The United States beat Japan 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Trinity Rodman.
Japan managed well defensively until the end of the first half of the extra time when Rodman scored a stunning goal.
The striker collected a diagonal pass from Crystal Dunn on the right side of the area, shimmied to her left to wrong-foot Japanese defender Hikaru Hitagawa before unleashing a powerful angled left-foot shot into the left top corner of the Japanese goal.
The United States, which enjoyed 71 percent ball possession, made four shots on goal against Japan's one.
Given the fact that the United States beat Germany 4-1 in the group stage, they are expected to have psychological edge when facing German side in the semifinals.
