Bert van Marwijk has described securing a place in the World Cup final as “unbelievable” after the Netherlands (5/4 to win the World Cup) ousted Uruguay in Tuesday’s semi-final.
The two-time finalists laboured to a 3-2 victory over the South American nation to set up a final date with either Germany or Spain on Sunday.
Despite having not been at their best Holland find themselves one game away from winning their first ever World Cup having lost to Argentina and West Germany in their two previous finals.
Uruguay were missing four key players but pushed Holland all the way in Cape Town after recovering from a slow start and could have gone through themselves.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst gave Holland the lead with one of the goals of the tournament before Diego Forlan equalised.
The Dutch toiled for much of the second half until Wesley Sneijder (3/1 top goalscorer) got the breakthrough on 70 minutes.
Arjen Robben quickly followed that up with a third before Maxi Pereira set up a nervy end with his goal in injury time.
However, Uruguay couldn’t find a third goal to force extra time and their brave World Cup campaign was brought to an end after another defensive minded performance from the Dutch.
Van Marwijk has come in for some criticism for his style of play which goes against the free-flowing football fans have come to expect from the Oranje.
The Feyenoord manager has admitted his brand of football isn’t the most attractive but claims Dutch fans won’t care if they win the World Cup on Sunday night.
“It’s amazing that we have managed to do this. It’s been 32 years,” he said.
“It is unbelievable. We can be very proud for such a small country.
“After the second and third (goals) we should have scored a fourth. That would have prevented that final phase.
“But this is a World Cup. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s all about the result.”
No doubt Van Marwijk will be watching Wednesday’s second semi-final with avid interest to discover who they will face in Soccer City.
Germany (evens to reach the final) have looked good throughout the tournament while Spain have stumbled their way through the proceeding rounds at times.
However, La Furia will no doubt give the Germans a tough match and it should be a close game to decide who will contest the final.
Holland should be full of confidence whoever they face having won every match they have played in the tournament thus far.
The Dutch are now the 5/4 favourites with totesport to win the World Cup while Spain have gone to 2/1 and Germany 11/5.
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Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk was pleased with the result as Holland beat Japan 1-0, and was happy that his defence had performed well (Netherlands 7/1 Outright).