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Portugal win ugly match 1-0 over the Netherlands
Maniche scored the only goal of a ugly match on Sunday to put Portugal into the World Cup quarter-finals after a 1-0 win over the Netherlands.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 10:35 AM IST
Read Time: 2 min
Nuremberg:
Maniche scored the only goal of a ugly match on Sunday to put Portugal into the World Cup quarter-finals after a 1-0 win over the Netherlands.
A quick move on the edge of the area in the 23rd minute ended with Pauleta touching the ball to Maniche, who skipped inside a defender and shot right-footed past goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar from about 16 meters.
Van der Sar had his mouth open in exasperation as the ball hit the net.
The Netherlands has now been eliminated from two straight major tournaments by Portugal. As host at the 2004 European Championship, Portugal beat the Dutch 2-1 in the semifinals, when Maniche also scored the winning goal.
Portugal had two players red-carded, midfielders Deco and Costinha, while the Netherlands lost Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Deco and Costinha will be suspended for Saturday's quarterfinal match against England in Gelsenkirchen. There were a World Cup record-tying 16 yellow cards in the match, nine for Portugal and seven for the Netherlands.
In two minutes before halftime, the game could have turned.
First, Van der Sar produced a stunning save on a point-blank shot from Pauleta in the goalmouth and moments later, Costinha inexplicably handled a simple through pass for his second yellow card.
By that time, Christiano Ronaldo was already in tears on the bench after he left the field injured following a high tackle into his groin from Boulahrouz.
It set up a thrilling second half, with an outmanned Portugal facing a Dutch team still looking for its touch.
In the 63rd, however, Boulahrouz elbowed the irrepressible Figo on another run, earning his second yellow card.
Deco later lost his poise and first made a wild tackle on defender John Heitinga and followed it up with childish timewasting in the 76th minute to be sent off by referee Valentin Ivanov.
In injury time, Van Bronckhorst was sent off for a second yellow card, making it nine-on-nine for the final seconds.
But amazingly, with most of the capacity crowd of 41,000 at the Franken Stadium roaring for the Netherlands, the Portuguese held on for one of its most famous victories.
And with magical coaching in a sea of chaos, Luiz Felipe Scolari kept his World Cup record-winning streak alive. The Brazilian has now won 11 straight. (AP)
Topics mentioned in this article
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