Let's go Dutch

SWEDEN 0-0 HOLLAND

After extra time, Holland won 5-4 on penalties

FROM the ridiculous to the sublime. The same Dutch fans who not seven days earlier had paid to fly Dick Advocaat home in humiliation were celebrating his team’s dramatic passage into the semi-finals of Euro 2004 last night. That it was achieved courtesy of a penalty shoot-out, the team’s notorious bete-noir down the years, served only to underline their renewal.

After 120 goalless minutes, including a period of extra time in which Henrik Larsson was one of two Swedish players to hit the woodwork, Holland’s history of failure did not fill them with optimism as they confronted sudden death. Arjen Robben, though, was the hero, slotting in the conclusive fifth after his team-mate, Phillip Cocu, had missed, as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olof Mellberg of Sweden.

At the end of a tense, sultry night here in the Algarve, Advocaat revealed that his team had not prepared for penalties in training, despite having never won a shoot-out in a major finals. "We didn’t practise because I still think it is like a lottery," he said. "It is the quality of player that makes a difference. I was not responsible for what happened in that period. Sweden practised penalties yesterday, and you see the result."

Holland, who have only come this far because Germany were beaten in the group phase by a Czech reserve team, struggled against a stubborn, dangerous Swedish side, but with France, Italy, Germany, England and Spain already out, somehow the European Championship has opened up in front of them. Now, after all their travails, they look forward to a semi-final against Portugal in Lisbon on Wednesday.

Advocaat, who was so frustrated in extra time that he took to booting a plastic cup from the dugout, could not disguise his relief. "I am happy because expectations were not that high in Holland when we started. It was quite emotional for everybody. You could see on the pitch, and among my staff, how we all worked together. Everybody believed in a good result. That showed from the moment Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored the first penalty."

After 90 frustrating minutes, the teams were so determined to score in extra time, they didn’t care whether it was a silver goal or a plastic one. The Sweden goalkeeper, Andreas Isaksson, would have been handed the wooden spoon if his blunder three minutes into extra period had given Holland the lead. Robben’s shot was powerful enough, but he could not have expected it to slip through Isaksson’s fumbling hands, after which the ball bounced against the base of the post.

Sweden had survived a torrid end to normal time, but in the last few minutes of the 120, it was their turn to come close. Twice they struck woodwork as sudden death beckoned, Larsson crashing a shot off the bar and Freddie Ljungberg thumping a 20-yarder, with the aid of a slight deflection, off the left-hand post. "I will have to go home and scrape myself off the floor," said Larsson, who converted a penalty in the shoot-out.

It was all played out on a lush rectangle of turf parked like an oasis on the scorched plains of the Portuguese coast. The stadium, 30,000 aquamarine seats housed under what looked like a giant hair clip, was as incongruous in the setting as the familiar faces confronting each other inside. It had been billed as an Old Firm derby, and with more than a few Celtic shirts in the crowd, that was not so very far from the truth.

The gang were all here. As well as Advocaat and his assorted Ibrox henchmen, Frank De Boer was making his 111th appearance for Holland, and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst started at left-back. His friend and former Old Firm rival, Larsson, vying with Van Nistelrooy to be recognised as the tournament’s top scorer, was joined in the Swedish dressing-room by Celtic’s Magnus Hedman and Johan Mjallby.

The muggy conditions appeared to weigh heavy on both sets of players in what was, until the late drama, a stodgy match. De Boer was booked, injured and then substituted after an early tackle, but his replacement, Wilfred Bouma, was responsible for denying Sweden in what was their only significant effort of the first half. Matthias Jonson skipped by Van Bronckhorst and cut the ball back to Anders Svensson, whose fierce shot from the edge of the area cannoned off Bouma.

Holland carried more menace, albeit only from long range, but the most attractive assault on their opponents’ goal in rather a lame opening 45 minutes came after only nine of them. Robben, the winger whose substitution by Advocaat caused such consternation among the Dutch fans seven days earlier, deserved a goal for the flourish with which he finished the move. Having accepted Seedorf’s pass, he cut inside the full-back and released a venomous shot that the keeper had to tip round the post.

The second half was Van Nistelrooy’s. When he burst into the box after an hour, Mellberg and his goalkeeper were so unnerved by the striker’s presence that each of them hesitated to clear the danger. The result was a bemusing exchange, the outcome of which was a ricochet that hit Van Nistelrooy and dribbled wide of the post. He might also have settled the issue in the last minute of normal time, but he was stretching too much to keep his header on target.

Sweden’s best effort in normal time involved Larsson. In a header reminiscent of that which he scored in the UEFA Cup final, the former Celtic striker rose to return a looping nod across goal, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic saw his back-post effort cleared off the line. Larsson later insisted that there was still no news on his future. "If nothing comes along I will retire," he said. "I stand by that promise." In the meantime, his European Championship is definitely over.