Netherlands squeezed into the finals of the FIFA World Cup after securing a 3-2 victory over Uruguay in the first semi-finals played at the Cape Town stadium here on Tuesday evening.
Staring as favourites to make it into the finals, Netherlands were off to a great start, thanks to their skipper Giovanni van Bronckhorst , whose scorcher from 25 yards hardly gave Uruguayan goalkeeper any chance to react in the 18th minute.
The Dutch weren’t as impressive as expected and even after taking the lead in the first half, had to pay the price for their complacency before the lemon break. Diego Forlan brought his team back to the level terms in the 41st minute through his spectacular strike from the top of the 18 yards box, which caught the Netherlands custodian on the wrong foot.
Forlan’s goal gave an alarming bell to the Oranje and they were all set to write off their ordinary performance in the second half.
The second half totally belonged to the Europeans as they notched up two more goals to record their third World Cup finals since the inception of the tournament.
Wesley Sneijder, the man in-form for the Netherlands gave the deserving lead by netting in his fifth goal of the tournament to go join top with Spain’s David Villa to lead the highest goal scorer chart. His right footer deflected one of the Uruguay defender before scribbling the net in the 70th minute.
Earlier, Diego Forlan free-kick was brilliantly cut off by the Netherland goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg in the 66th minute, while Van Der Varrt saw his strike clawed away for corner by the Uruguay goalkeeper Nestor Muslera Micol.
The man who ripped apart Brazilian defence in the quarter-finals, Arjen Robben was soon seen in action and sent the South Americans on the back foot heading in a Dirk Kuyt cross from the left flank in the 74th minute.
Maximiliano Pereira strike in the injury time was too late to do any damage as Dutch stormed into the finals of the FIFA World Cup for the third time.