NETHERLANDS 2 MEXICO 1: Orange Boys Strike Late To Progress To Quarter Final

The Netherlands moved on to the World Cup quarterfinals with a comeback 2-1 win over Mexico on Sunday afternoon at the Estadio Castelão in Fortaleza.

A late goal from Wesley Sneijder and a penalty conversion from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar outweighed a 48th minute Giovani dos Santos strike to set the 2010-runners-up with a quarterfinal clash versus either Costa Rica or Greece.

Mexico head coach Miguel Herrera made only one change to his starting XI as Carlos Salcido subbed in for the suspended José Juan Vazquez in the three-man midfield. Otherwise, it was the usual cast of characters with Guillermo Ochoa in goal, Paul Aguilar and Miguel Layún as wingbacks and Rafa Márquez, Hector Moreno and Francisco Rodríguez as the center backs. Salcido joined midfielders Hector Herrera and Andres Guardado while Oribe Peralta and Dos Santos started up front as forwards.


For Holland, head coach Louis van Gaal rolled out a 3-4-1-2 formation that saw Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben up top at striker. Sneijder assumed his duties as the No.10 in the attacking midfield while Dirk Kuyt, Nigel De Jong, Georginio Wijnaldum and Paul Verhaegh formed the central midfield. In defense it was a three-man alignment of Daley Blind, Ron Vlaar and Stefan de Vrij in front of goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.

The Dutch suffered the first setback of the match as Van Gaal had to go to his bench inside the first ten minutes when an apparent muscle injury forced De Jong to leave and he was replaced by Bruno Martins.
Mexico controlled the temp in the first half with only a 27th minute Van Persie chance being the primary threat to Ochoa’s goal. Otherwise, the play of Herrera and Peralta stood out for the CONCACAF nation would looked the brighter of the two sides.

Yet the Netherlands nearly gifted a late first half goal by the Mexican defense when a poor touch from Marquez led to a quick break only to see Robben’s chance snuffed out by Moreno. Replays showed that a penalty could have been whistled against the Espanyol man, but there was no call from the referee and the score remained in a goalless deadlock at the halftime whistle.

The second half was barely a few minutes old when a bit of brilliance from Dos Santos opened the scoring as the Villarreal man did well to hold off Bling and fired a left-footed rocket that went searing past Cillessen.

Ochoa was then called into action and answered with two massive stops, one off his face that then struck the post and deflected out and then another after substitute Diego Reyes’ giveaway led to a Robben chance. But there was nothing Ochoa could do on a Sneijder shot in the 87th minute as the Galatasaray man leveled the match 1-1 when a corner kick fell to his feet and Sneijder powered a ball home.

The Netherlands were not going to play for extra time and went for the winner and would earn it in stoppage time when Robben was brought down by Márquez in the area and substitute Klaas-Jan Huntelaar converted the spot kick to send the Netherlands to the quarterfinals and break the hearts of Mexican everywhere.