Soccer: Portugal beat Dutch in ill-tempered game

Referee Valentin Ivanov of Russia shows Portugal's Deco a red card in today's scrappy encounter against the Dutch. Picture / Reuters

NUREMBERG - Portugal booked their place in the World Cup soccer quarterfinals with a bruising and bad-tempered 1-0 win over Netherlands at the Frankenstadion today.

In a dramatic and explosive game marked by a flurry of yellow cards and four reds, a record for a match at any World Cup finals, Portugal clung on to the advantage they earned when Maniche fired them ahead after only 23 minutes.

Despite the dismissals of Portuguese midfielders Costinho and Deco plus Dutch defenders Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst by Russian referee Valentin Ivanov, it was a contest of high drama and much attacking play.

Portugal's reward for hanging on to their lead is a meeting with England in the last eight in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday (NZ time) when they will be without Costinha and Deco, who are now suspended.

"All I can think about today is this heroic, marvellous victory. I'm happy," Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said.

Captain Figo added: "Our team was good tactically against a difficult side. When we ended up with 10 we were forced to make sacrifices, lots of work, run double. This team is fantastic."

Eight players were booked in addition to the four sent off in a match that almost descended into farce at the end with the players becoming increasingly frustrated as the referee repeatedly stopped the action to brandish yellow and red cards.

"It is a pity the referee made a mess of this game," Netherlands coach Marco van Basten said.

"I think in the second half we only played 20 or 25 minutes of football."

The Dutch enjoyed most of the early possession but in a tight, technical contest they also picked up two quick cautions.

The first went to Mark van Bommel for fouling Cristiano Ronaldo after two minutes and the second, after seven, to Boulahrouz for a high challenge that cut Ronaldo's right thigh.

The Netherlands right back was lucky not to be sent off but the damage he did resulted in Ronaldo, after being treated twice, limping out of the game in the 34th minute.

By then, Maniche had been cautioned for a challenge on Van Bommel and struck the opening goal, a sweetly taken right-foot finish from 12m.

The goal was made by Pauleta. Receiving a low cross from Deco, on the right, the striker delicately held up the ball before laying it off to Maniche, who side-stepped a challenge from Andre Ooijer and then planted a right-foot shot inside Edwin van der Saar's left post.

Within nine minutes Costinha picked up his first yellow card for a foul on Phillip Cocu.

He was lucky to escape another, for a foul on Ooijer as the game reached boiling point, before he was sent off in first half stoppage time for handball in midfield for his second yellow.

A minute earlier, Portugal had almost taken a two-goal lead when Pauleta's shot on the turn was saved with his legs by Van der Sar, making a record 113th appearance for the Netherlands.

The Dutch raised the tempo after the break when Cocu thumped a shot against the bar and twice Van Bommel hit thunderous drives -- one bounced wide and the other flew just over.

Boulahrouz was dismissed after 63 minutes for raising his elbow on Figo, minutes after the winger was himself booked for butting Van Bommel as all hell threatened to break loose.

It almost did in a welter of scraps and more wild tackling as both sides dived into tackles in the closing stages when Deco was sent off for his second yellow after time-wasting.

The game was almost over when Van Bronckhorst got a second booking for a foul in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

His sending off brought the total number of red cards at these finals to 23, already more than the record of 22 set in 1998.

- REUTERS