Surprises, we had a few. But at crunch time the 2014 World Cup ended up producing a fantastic pairing of semifinals. Fans of football will have few reasons to complain about the program of events for next week: on Tuesday, Brazil and Germany play in Belo Horizonte, a day before Argentina and Holland take the field in São Paulo. Four teams that couldn’t symbolize more what this tournament has been so far: the combination of talent, tradition, grit and some luck. Nobody would really dare predicting the winners.

Why? Because logic has proved to be untrustworthy in this World Cup. Costa Rica’s arrival in the quarterfinals was hardly plotted, for example. Besides, when powerhouses clash, no result is really easy to predict. Let’s take Brazil and Germany as example. Both team had very similar campaigns in what concerns a lack of plain sailing. Brazil’s goalless draw against Mexico isn’t that different from Germany’s 2-2 with Ghana. In both cases the traditional sides were taken to the limit by supposedly weaker rivals.

Both teams qualified with seven points and funnily enough scored seven goals in the group stages. Germany did not have to go to penalties yet, as Brazil did against Chile, but their round of 16 win over Algeria was tense and required extra time. Brazilians and Germans both put on very professional displays to negotiate safe passage in the quarterfinals. The difference separating these two sides is that Germany still have most of their group intact while Brazil suffered the massive loss of Neymar.

It is no understatement to say Brazil will have to adapt quickly to absorb the loss of their most important player. Neymar was important for Brazil just by being on the pitch and giving opponents something to think of. He netted four goals in the World Cup and produced moments of magic when Brazil needed the most, including taking a crucial penalty in the shootout against the Chileans. While his displays were not that exciting in the two knockout games, Neymar is the kind of the player you can expect the unexpected. It’s a huge tactical blow for Luiz Felipe Scolari too: he now needs to find a replacement for a unique kind of piece.

The closest option seems to be dislocating Oscar to the No. 10 position and bring either William or Bernard to bring some speed into the side.

But the crucial point will be reinforcing midfield to avoid the rampaging Germans. France suffered immensely with their power and pace. They did have more shots on goal but did not really trouble Manuel Neuer and their advances were motivated by the fact Joachim Low’s man had done their jobs quite early in the first half and just elected to sit back and wait for the French in the second. Had Andreas Schürle shown more composure in front of goal, Germany would have won with a bigger score than the 1-0 in Rio.

Against Colombia Brazil had their best first 45 minutes in the tournament before struggling in the second half also thanks to Colombia making changes that allowed James Rodriguez more space. Thiago Silva’s suspension will also be a blow and although Dante, his possible substitute, was “made” in the Bundesliga, his arrival will force David Luiz to the right side of the defence, which is hardly his favourite. The good news is the return of Luiz Gustavo, which will beef up midfield.

On the other side of the draw, two very different teams. Argentina arrived at the tournament with great expectations. After five games, though, reality has been very different. Lionel Messi has saved them from looking rather ordinary and even though Argentina for the first time in 24 years have made it to the semifinals they now face a resolute Dutch team with Messi’s support base looking more depleted.

Gone are Angel Di Maria and probably Sergio Aguero and Messi himself is only human. The encouraging thing is that the game against Belgium showed more control than the nervy encounter with Switzerland, even though both games ended 1-0.

Holland will be a different affair, though, and they will have drawn great confidence for their comeback against Mexico and their shootout victory against Costa Rica. The shootout itself means that Holland broke a great psychological barrier: it was the first time the Dutch ever survived penalties in any competition and that can only spur them forward.

Louis Van Gaal probably has a plan as we speak to deal with Messi and the Argentines. That will probably include a great deal of congestion in midfield in order to give Messi as little space as possible while Holland’s great strike force tries to do the job up front on the break and explore the frailties in Argentina’s back four. Rather than a simple affair, both semifinals will have the profile of chess matches.

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(Fernando Duarte is a Brazilian football writer and author of “Shocking Brazil: Six Games That Shook the World Cup” Birlinn Books.)