25 June 2006, by Tom Kundert

Nine-man Portugal overcome Holland in dramatic encounter

Portugal 1-0 Holland

Another cracking Maniche goal proved decisive as Portugal beat Holland 1-0 in a dramatic match in Nuremburg in which both teams ended the match with nine men on the pitch.

Having seen off the challenge of one of their Euro 2004 victims, Portugal will now be looking to repeat the feat against England, who they met in the same quarter-final stage two years ago.

Scolari’s Midas touch

Luiz Filipe Scolari’s Midas World Cup touch continues unabated. The Brazilian brilliantly orchestrated another victory in difficult circumstances, making the right substitutions at the right time to guide Portugal to victory despite playing much of match with fewer players than their opponents.

Holland started brightly, with van Bommel flashing a shot across goal in the opening exchanges. The referee, whose performance can be described as shambolic at best, showed his propensity for card waving as early as the 2nd minute, when he cautioned Van Bommel for an innocuous looking challenge.

The only time throughout the ninety minutes that the referee should have been sterner was when yellow carding Khalid Boulahrouz, nicknamed ‘Khalid the Cannibal’ in the 7th minute for a disgraceful thigh-high tackle on Ronaldo that left the Manchester United winger writhing in pain and subsequently led to his substitution.

Slick move

Ronaldo’s final contribution was to start a beautiful flowing move that saw Portugal take the lead halfway through the first period.

The debilitated winger turned well and played a good ball to Deco who ran down the right flank before crossing to the edge of the box. Pauleta controlled the ball and laid it off to Maniche, who neatly sidestepped a defender and planted a clinical right-foot shot into the net leaving Van der Sar no chance.

Shortly afterwards Simao replaced Ronaldo, but the forced withdrawal of Portugal’s star player did not unnerve the team, who although conceding plenty of possession, looked dangerous whenever hitting the Dutch on the break.

On just such an occasion Simao swung over a low cross, Figo played a clever dummy, and Pauleta swivelled and shot to force a brilliant reaction save out of Van der Sar.

Costinha clanger

Portugal suffered a big setback on the stroke of half time when Costinha, already on a yellow card, inexplicably handled needlessly and was sent off.

As the teams retreated to the changing rooms at the break, Scolari knew the changes he made for the second half would have a huge bearing on whether or not his incredible record winning run at the World cup would be extended to 11 matches.

Pauleta was the man sacrificed, with Simao and Figo left to fill the attacking void, and Petit coming on to help counter what would surely be a Dutch onslaught.

The opening minutes of the second half proved torrid for Portugal, as wave after wave of Holland attacks threatened to wrest the initiative from Scolari’s team. Perhaps the key moment in the match was when Cocu’s 49th minute shot from close range thundered against the underside of the bar and bounced to safety.

From that moment onwards Portugal grew in confidence, stemmed the flow of Dutch attacks and threatened themselves on several swift breakaways. Miguel and Maniche tested Van der Sar with good shots from distance, while Ricardo did well to block a fine strike from Wesley Sneijder.

However, the busiest man on the pitch continued to be the referee, who was waving around cards like confetti, and Portugal were given a huge boost shortly after the hour mark when Boulahrouz was shown his second yellow card and subsequent red, for elbowing Luis Figo.

Deco sees red

Numerical parity lasted only 15 minutes however, as Deco was shown two yellow cards in quick succession leaving the prowling Scolari livid on the touchline. Portugal had around 15 minutes to hold on for a quarter-final spot.

They did so without too much alarm, with Simao and late substitute Tiago holding onto the ball intelligently deep into the Dutch half for much of the dying minutes to complete a heroic victory, and trigger wild scenes of celebration among the minority of Portuguese fans in the stadium and throughout the whole of Portugal.

PortuGoal man of the match:
Maniche - The former Porto star has been back to his brilliant best in Portugal’s last two matches, with his simple but wonderfully effective passing game and selfless running, and his venomous shooting that has already yielded two superb goals.

Portugal:
Ricardo, Miguel, Meira, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Costinha, Maniche, Figo (Tiago, 83), Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo (Simao, 33), Pauleta (Petit, 45)
Yellow Cards: Maniche (19), Costinha (30 & 45), Petit (50), Figo (58), Deco (72 & 77), Ricardo (75), Nuno Valente (75)
Red Cards: Costinha (45), Deco (77)

Holland:
Van der Sar, Van Bronckhorst, Mathijsen (Van der Vaart, 55), Ooijer, Boulahrouz, Cocu (Hesselink, 83), Sneijder, Van Bommel (Heitinga, 66), Robben, Kuijt, Van Persie
Yellow Cards: Van Bommel (1), Boulahrouz (7 & 62), Van Bronckhorst (58 & 95), Sneijder (72), Van der Vaart (72)
Red Cards: Boulahrouz (62), Van Bronckhorst (95)

Goals:
[1-0] Maniche, 23