In a semi-final contest that the general football public wouldn’t have predicted, both the Netherlands and Uruguay have performed consistently in getting this far in South Africa and have arguably earned their place in the semi-finals on the back of some courageous first-team performances.
Indeed, many pundits envisaged that the quarter-final clash against Brazil would spell the conclusion of a respectable tournament campaign for the Dutch; but Bert van Marwijk’s men had other ideas transforming a 1-0 deficit at the break into a 2-1 victory after 90 minutes courtesy of a match-winning Wesley Sneijder brace.
Uruguay’s progression to the last four was similarly hard-fought, yet Oscar Tabarez’s side’s controversy-filled battle with Ghana needed to be won on penalties, with Sebastian Abreu arrogantly scoring the decisive penalty through a delightfully delicate chip.
