World Cup 2006 - Boxing in Germany

Holland v Portugal. Not a classic game of football in any sense of the word. Portugal really dug in to win the game 1 - 0, but with 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards this game was a major dissapointment.

The dutch team have been below their best since the first game and failed to improve as the tournament went on, dropping their best striker Van Nistelrooy after the first 2 games. Today though Holland were desperately in need of a clinical goal scorer such as Nistelrooy but even with the extra man advantage, they didn't bring him on the field. The dutch manager is going to get a lot of criticism for this.

Both sides had many experienced players and as the game progressed they started to take advantage of the referees over-eagerness to produce yellow cards and in the end the game descended into a farcical match.

What does this mean for England? Well they face Portugal in the next match and the Portugese must be licking their wounds after this game. It was a bruising battle, they will have players missing for the next game and surely bodes well for Englands chances to make the Semi-Finals.