The next day, the World Cup continued, and the fifth 1/8 knockout round was played against the two sides, respectively, the Netherlands, which won all three games in the group stage and easily qualified, and Slovakia, the biggest dark horse in this World Cup.

As a newcomer to the World Cup, Slovakia's performance in this World Cup can be described as impressive, especially the core player in the team, Hamsik, as the captain of Slovakia, Hamsik scored one goal and assisted two goals in the previous three group games, and performed very well.

Although there is a big gap in strength between the two sides in this game, before the game, almost no one thinks that the Netherlands has the chance to win, and perhaps people are more looking forward to the fact that Slovakia, the dark horse, can be black to the end and be the favorite to win the championship.

The Dutchman apparently didn't think so, though, and manager Van Marwijk's confidence was evident before the game, with some journalists asking Van Marwijk: "Why wasn't there a penalty training session in the afternoon before the game?" ”

Van Marwijk confidently replied: "We don't need to, we have practiced many times, but it was behind closed doors, so no one can see it, although Slovakia are new to the World Cup, we don't underestimate them, we don't underestimate any opponent, but we will play our own game, no matter who the opponent is, we have always been like this." ”

Captain Van Bronckhorst also said: "Slovakia are a very defensive team and are very efficient on the counter-attack, it will be a tough game and we have to be very careful, but I believe the victory will go to the Netherlands! ”

There's a reason why the manager and captain are so confident, of course, Van Marwijk said: "We controlled three games, won three, the team was very consistent, I said to my players that we have to be 100 per cent motivated every game to get the best result, every ball, every challenge, every throw-in, and I want a dynamic team that can put on a good show up front. ”

Van Marwijk said: "We will not lose to Slovakia, it can't and won't happen, we will stay until the final on 11 July. ”

Before the game, the biggest positive for the Dutch team was that the core player Arjen Robben finally returned to the starting lineup. The return of "Peter Pan" also squeezed Van der Vaart to the bench, and fans were worried about whether Robben, who had been out for so long due to injury, would be able to adapt to the high-intensity confrontation, but judging by the course of the game, Robben was still the most dangerous player in the Dutch team.

The result of the game did not go as expected, with goals from Robben and Sneijder, the Netherlands finally defeated Slovakia, the dark horse of this World Cup, 2-1, and successfully entered the quarterfinals.

This is the fourth consecutive win for the Dutch team since the start of the tournament, and the opening four consecutive wins also set a new record for the Dutch team to participate in the World Cup.

Previously, the Dutch team participated in the World Cup 8 times, and the best record was two consecutive wins in the opening game, which was set in the 06 World Cup in Germany.

Although Slovakia defeated Italy to reach the round of 16 of this tournament, objectively speaking, there is still a big gap between them and the Netherlands in terms of strength. The final result was not as expected, and the Dutch team beat their opponents and continued to move on.

However, Slovakia was not completely out of chances in this game, after Sneijder scored the first goal, Slova and the core player Hamsik used their outstanding individual skills to enter the Dutch team's penalty area after just five minutes, and finally kept the draw until the end of normal time.

It's just that in extra time, the stronger Netherlands still seized an opportunity, after Robben's iconic wide breakthrough, cut inside the goal, and drew an end to the dark horse's World Cup journey.

In this game, the Dutch team continued their previous group stage tactics, although the field was no longer as passionate as the original Dutch team, but it became more practical.

Perhaps the previous attacking football did not win the Dutch championship, which made the Dutch team start to explore new tactical plays. The Dutch team in South Africa did not play passionately or aggressively.

The strength advantage has made it a formality to defeat their opponents along the way, and some of them even seem to have their eyes on their next possible opponent.

In this game, the whole Dutch team did not run very actively, it seems to have reservations, it is clear that the Dutch team has deliberately stayed in this game, perhaps, this Dutch team has completely erased the shadow of gorgeous football, but as Robben said in an interview after the game, victory is the most important thing.

Dutch coach Donny van Marwijk said before the World Cup: "We can play beautifully, but the most important thing is to win the final title, and as long as we can win, we are willing to let go of the flashy and become ugly." ”

But in fact, the Dutch opponents are not afraid of the Dutch team with a flashy style of play, they are even more afraid of the uglier Dutch team.

For this Dutch team, perhaps it is more promising to abandon the gorgeous football of all-attack and all-defense and adopt a pragmatic style of play that is stable and counter-attacking.

In addition to the change in style of play, it is more worth affirming that this "orange team" is very united, in the previous World Cups, the contradictions within the Dutch team have always been an endless topic, take the recent 2008 European Championship, there is Van Bommel and coach Basten's bad relationship.

However, Van Marwijk's team has rarely seen negative news of internal discord in the media, and the unity of the team is the driving force behind the Dutch team.

The new tactics have made the Dutch team more stable, and the unity has made the Dutch team burst out with greater energy, not only in the whole, but also in the individual.

As the core of the new Dutch team, the "brain" Sneijder played in the fourth game of the World Cup, and finally let people see the familiar Sneijder, a goal, an assist, it seems that Sneijder's state came a little late, but a fact, I believe many Dutch fans have agreed that in this orange team, the most reliable player in the midfield may be Sneijder.

Of course, once Robben cuts inside, he will be allowed to keep the play, but Robben's injury determines that he can't play 100%, so coach Van Marwijk wants to overturn the five-star Brazil, and no one can lack Sneijder.

In the previous group stage game against Japan, Sneijder made a sudden cold arrow, allowing the team to get three points on the premise that the scene was not good-looking, and against Denmark and Cameroon, Sneijder was more in the midfield to command and dispatch, and the shot was also played around the big penalty area.

It was only against Slovakia today that fans saw a Sneijder who ran deeper and had a more imaginative ball arrangement, which was the brain of the whole Tulip Netherlands team.

Helping his team take the lead in the first half, when Sneijder won the ball outside the box and barely made any adjustments, he directly kicked the world wave, leaving the Slovak goalkeeper to sigh at the ball.

And in today's game, a goal that decided the outcome can also be said to be Sneijder's great credit, Robben's iconic in-cut work, but the ball comes from Sneijder's delivery, although it is about 40 meters apart, and Sneijder's position is on the left, but at this time, the biggest advantage of the midfielders can be expressed, pointing to where to play and where to play the footwork scheduling.

Sneijder's oblique pass, the first drop point is just a little ahead of Robben's run, in the middle of the opponent's two defenders, a little lighter Robben has to turn back to pick up, a little heavier Slovak central defender is all in order, and the unbiased kick, "Peter Pan" can also be very comfortable to sprint with the ball.

Originally, the Dutch team still had a chance to solve the battle in regular time today, when it was also a pass from Sneijder, Robben and Kuyt took over for the first time, the two played a quick two-by-one, Robben entered the penalty area and crossed, Kuyt shot angrily, the opposing goalkeeper didn't care about 3721, blocked the ball with his nose, so that the Dutch team missed a chance to kill the game.

Sneijder made two threatening passes in this game, one far and one close, one diagonal pass all the time, and there was no exaggerated action, and the edification of the high-level professional league was enough for Sneijder to manipulate the ball as he wanted.

Due to Robben's winning goal, the International Blocking gave Robben the best of the match after the game, in fact, on the whole, Sneijder is best suited to win the best again.

Robben, who sealed the win for the team, won the best player, and the team's brain Sneijder was also impressive, but the Dutch team's victory should also be thankful for one person, that is, goalkeeper Stekelenburg.

It was the goalkeeper from Ajax who saved two must-have goals in the final minute of extra-time to keep the Dutch team alive.

Even the head coach of the Netherlands, Van Marwijk, admitted after the game that it was Stekelenburg who saved the game, otherwise the Dutch could have been in trouble: "He put in a great performance to make sure we got through the toughest moments of the game. ”

When the Dutch team is mentioned, the brilliant attacking genius up front is often recalled, and few people pay attention to what the players at the back are doing, especially after Van der Sar's retirement, and the Dutch backline, which has lost its only star, has been even more overlooked.

However, everything for this Dutch side is built on defence, and the numbers speak for themselves, as they conceded just two goals before reaching the quarter-finals. While many strong teams were eliminated one after another, the Dutch team relied on solid defense to successfully enter the quarter-finals.

For Dutch goalkeeper Stekelenburg, it was not easy to be the Dutch goalkeeper after Van der Sar: "Van der Sar is the best goalkeeper in the Netherlands, I know that if I make a mistake people will immediately talk about Van der Sar, I was with him at the last World Cup and Euro 2008, I learned a lot of experience, it was an honour to be able to defend the Netherlands and now it's my turn to show what I can do." ”

Fans familiar with Dutch football will no doubt be unfamiliar with Stekelenburg, who has been trained at Ajax over the years, and has gained plenty of experience in the league, cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League.

Stekelenburg has good enough fundamentals, solid saves in the bottom three, impeccable speed and reflexes, and the same 1.97m size as Van der Sar helps him control a variety of high balls.

What is even more commendable is that for all kinds of tricky dead corners, he can stretch out his long arms and jump sideways to make the so-called "fingertip save".

Debuting at Ajax, he also has the special ability of goalkeepers required by Dutch football, and he can make accurate long passes.

As long as the center forward signals for the ball, he can accurately send the ball to within one metre of the center forward's area, and he has even played a long ball to assist in the Eredivisie.

In this game, it was not so much the strong attack of the Dutch team that destroyed Slovakia, but the excellent performance of Stekelenburg, which brought the dark horse's World Cup journey to an early end.

Of course, the Dutch team still didn't play pretty in this game, and the Dutchman honestly said after the game that it was still not the most beautiful Dutch football.

It's true that this Dutch team is atypical, not without technical players, but they don't take pleasure in creating momentum in the front court.

When the chances aren't the best, they frequently return backballs and it remains to be seen if this will cause them problems in future matches.

However, the Dutch team is more mature than ever before, with a reasonable age structure, outstanding characteristics of the strikers, and excellent tackling ability at the back, and it seems that everyone has reached a consensus.

Be patient, the opportunity will come, and we can accept the ugly win, because beauty has left us too many shadows.

This is the fifth time that the Netherlands have reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and the previous four times, only in 1994, were the only ones who stopped there, and interestingly, it was none other than Brazil.

After that, in 1998, they were also eliminated by Brazil on penalties.

Brazil have been in the way of their World Cup for the last 20 years, but every time the Netherlands lose, Blanco's free-kick winner should have been fouled by their opponents in 1994.

In 1998, Kluivert's several shots went wide and sent the Brazilians in fear until the last minute.

This time, the Netherlands are also not the favourites, but this smooth Dutch team has yet to deliver their most beautiful football.

"The best performance in the Netherlands is yet to come, and we all hope that the match against Brazil will be better than this one." Robben promised.

In the next quarter-finals, the Netherlands are likely to face the semi-finals of the 98 World Cup, knocking out their Brazil team on penalties, and Robben and his Dutch team are ready to take revenge.

The pinnacle matchup between two of the best defensive counter-attacking teams in today's football may have lost the passion of the previous duels, but it is about the World Cup crown battle.

And then the next 1/8 final, against the two sides Brazil and Chile, the winner will become the next opponent of the Dutch team.