World Cup 2010: Netherlands 2-0 Denmark - Super sub Eljero Elia shines and Dirk Kuyt on target in comfortable win

Daniel Agger own goal sets Dutch on their way...

14 Jun 2010 14:18:00

By Stefan Coerts

More On :  Denmark, Netherlands
Netherlands v Denmark : John Heitinga; Thomas Kahlenberg (Getty)
The Netherlands comfortably beat Denmark 2-0 on Monday, thanks to an own goal from Simon Poulsen and a late tap-in from Dirk Kuyt.
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Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk gave Rafael van der Vaart the nod to prove his worth at the left wing and started in the 4-2-3-1 formation we are all used to from the Dutch.

For Denmark, national coach Morten Olsen awarded striker Nicklas Bendtner a starting berth despite his reported injury problems. Additionally, Simon Poulsen and Thomas Enevoldsen were somewhat surprisingly included in Denmark's starting XI.

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Denmark started the match in sloppy fashion, as a weak backpass immediately troubled shot-stopper Thomas Sorensen. The glovesman managed to clear the ball into safety before Robin van Persie got to the ball, however.

The referee awarded Oranje a free kick about 40 yards away from the Danish goal in the sixth minute and Wesley Sneijder opted to try his luck from long range. However, the Inter star aimed high and wide and the ball ended up in the stands.

Sorensen was called into action again after ten minutes of play. Dirk Kuyt was given some extra room and decided to pounce on the opportunity to shoot on goal. Looked fairly rudimentary for Sorensen, despite for the fact that he dropped it, but luckily for him and the Danes, no Dutch players were on hand to capitalise.

Van Persie turned his man inside out with a delicate first touch halfway the first half before he picked out Van Der Vaart. The latter fired with his left, but the ball went out for a corner.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Player rating: 8

Enevoldsen then decided to take things into his own hands and charges towards goal. Since no one shut him down, he winded up his right foot and blasted his shot high and wide.

The Danes got the best chance of the match after 27 minutes of play. Dennis Rommedahl sent in a perfect cross from the right for Nicklas Bendtner and the Arsenal star headed only just wide from close range.

A counter move by Denmark around the half hour mark caused the Dutch defence some problems. Rommedahl received a switching ball on the right and went past his marker. Nevertheless, he fired a ball straight at Stekelenburg.

Stekelenburg again saved the day for Holland minutes later. Bendtner opened up the Dutch defence, sending a through-pass to Kahlenburg. The Wolfsburg midfielder fired in a left-footed shot that was tipped out for a corner.

Van Persie then almost broke the deadlock in the dying seconds of the first half. A lucky rebound fell to the tricky attacker inside the area. Van Persie went by Agger, but slotted wide from close range.

Orange zest | Dutch looked fresh, but still needed luck to break through

Oranje started the second half brilliantly and opened the score only one minute after the interval. Van Persie went after a long ball down the left wing and collected the pass before sending in a cross to the far post. Denmark defender Simon Poulsen tried to head the ball clear, but his attempt bounced off the back of Daniel Agger past the helpless Denmark goalie to make it 1-0 for the Dutch.

Van Persie got a big chance to double his side's lead in the 52nd minute after an error from Simon Kjaer. Nevertheless, Sorensen rushed off his line to collect the ball before Van Persie got the chance to fire in a shot.

The Arsenal man did find the net at the hour mark, but the whistle had already gone and Van Persie's goal was disallowed for offside.

Substitute Eljero Elia showed a flash of brilliance only minutes after coming off the bench. The Hamburg star went by two defenders with a nice individual move, but his cross wasn't met by a teammate and the chance went begging.

Gronkjaer got past two men after about senty minutes of play and whipped in a long cross from the left. Going over the head of Rommedahl, the Danes lost the opportunity to equalise though.
BERT VAN MARWIJK

Sneijder came very close to making it two for Oranje in the last ten minutes of the game. Ibrahim Afellay set up the Inter star with an intelligent pass on the Danish half and Sneijder unleashed a left footed shot that deflected off Agger to hit the crossbar.

Netherlands decided the match five minutes before the final whistle. Sneijder sent Elia clean through on goal with a brilliant through pass. The Hamburg star's shot bounced back off the upright, but Kuyt was alert to tap the rebound home from close range to make it 2-0.

The Dutch came close to making it three only minutes later via Afellay. However, Simon Poulsen cleared the PSV star's shot only inches before the ball crossed the line.

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
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