Holland got off to an excellent start in Group E with a deserved 2-0 win over Denmark at Soccer City on Monday afternoon (Holland 7/1 outright).

A freak own goal from Daniel Agger put them ahead before his Liverpool team-mate Dirk Kuyt sealed the points late on.

The first half failed to excite the fans, but the Dutch were ahead within a minute of the restart and took command of the match.

Rafael van der Vaart failed to find the target with a couple of early half-chances from the edge of the area for the Dutch before the best chance of the first half arrived on 27 minutes when Dennis Rommedahl played in a cross from the right which was nodded wide of the target by the unmarked Nicklas Bendtner.

Holland could have taken the lead in fortunate circumstances on 33 minutes when Kuyt’s low cross deflected off a Danish defender and then ricocheted off Johnny Heitinga on its way over the bar.

Rommedahl drilled a fierce attempt at Maarten Stekelenburg before the Dutch shot-stopper was forced to parry away Thomas Kahlenberg’s thumping effort for a corner.

The Netherlands were in front inside the opening minute of the second period and luck played a major part in the goal.

Simon Poulsen’s laughable attempt to head clear Van Persie’s cross merely bounced off the back of Agger before clipping the post on its way past a helpless Sorensen.

The Danes could have swiftly found themselves 2-0 down if Van Persie had not produced a terrible first touch following a poor pass by Simon Kjaer.

Van Persie then sought to be the creator once again as his clipped pass into the box was turned towards goal by Van der Vaart, allowing Sorensen to produce an acrobatic save for the cameras.

Holland continued to look the more likely to score, with Sorensen pushing Mark van Bommel’s drive wide and Van Persie heading the resultant corner off target when found unmarked.

A second goal for Bert van Marwijk’s side almost arrived eight minutes from time when Sneijder’s shot deflected off Agger and looped on to the top of Sorensen’s crossbar.

The Dutch wrapped up the points with five minutes to go when Kuyt tucked away the loose ball after Elia, who had injected some spark into the game after his introduction from the bench, had seen his delicately clipped shot come back off the post.

Simon Poulsen did at least prevent the score from becoming worse for Denmark when he acrobatically cleared the ball from underneath his own bar after substitute Ibrahim Afellay had beaten Sorensen to a cross, but it was a case of too little, too late.

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