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Monday, June 28, 2010

Second Round : Netherlands 2-1 Slovakia

The Netherlands eased to a 2-1 second round win over Slovakia on Monday afternoon - and moved into the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

A superb strike from Arjen Robben and a late Wesley Sneijder goal gave Netherlands a deserved victory over Slovakia although the dutch wastefulness in front of goal almost cost the men on Oranje.

Robben marked his first start of the World Cup finals in South Africa by collecting a pass from Sneijder before running at the Slovakia defence and then firing a superb low drive into the net from 25 yards after 18 minutes.

The Netherlands then contrived to miss a series of good goalscoring opportunities, and escaped when Slovakia did the same late on in the second half.

Finally, Sneijder stroked home a pull-back from Dirk Kuyt in the 84th minute to essentially seal the game for the Dutch, before Robert Vittek score a consolation penalty with the very last kick of the match.

With a quarter-final tie against either Brazil or Chile to come, the Dutch will have to up their game if they are to fulfil their aim of finally winning the big prize.

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