Maniche's fine 23rd-minute goal was the high point of a match tarnished by four red cards. After Portugal's Costinha was dismissed on the stroke of half-time, three other players followed him off the field in the second period: Khalid Boulahrouz after 63 minutes, Deco after 78, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst five minutes into injury time.
Portugal, who beat England in the quarter-finals at UEFA EURO 2004, will try to repeat that performance when the teams meet again in Gelsenkirchen next Saturday, 1 July.
The match:
14': The match quickly began to develop a physical edge with two Dutch bookings - for Van
Bommel and Boulahrouz - inside the first ten minutes. However, the Oranje were also carving out the better scoring chances. Robin van Persie's grass-cutting strike eventually slipped wide of the post, but had Ricardo scrambling.
23': Despite those near things, it was Portugal who scored the all-important goal from their first significant attack, Deco crossed dangerously from the right for Pauleta, who dropped a first-time ball back to Maniche. The midfielder did brilliantly well to make space for himself to hammer a right-footed drive into the top corner. (1-0)
37': The Dutch hit back with some good work of their own and Van Persie was unlucky to see his drive from a tough angle fly wide of the post after some dazzling dribbling in the Portuguese box.
49': The Dutch started the second period brightly. After Van Bommel missed what would have been
a spectacular bicycle kick in the area, veteran midfielder Phillip Cocu found himself the beneficiary of a kind bounce. But his luck ran out when he hammered his shot from eight yards against the crossbar.
50': Keeping up the pressure, Van Bommel unleashed a vicious shot from 20 yards only to see his try saved brilliantly by the increasingly harried Ricardo.
90+5 Van Bronckhorst was booked for a second cautionable offence in the dying moments as the match ended with nine against nine. In the end, though, the Portuguese were able to withstand a late Dutch onslaught and hang on for the victory.
As the disappointed Dutch embark on their short journey home, Portugal are into the quarter-finals for only the second time in their history where they will meet England. The two sides met back in the semi-finals in 1966 and England emerged victorious en route to their only ever FIFA World Cup title.
(Source: FIFA)
