Group C
Netherlands 2, Ivory Coast 1
Dutch coach Marco van Basten hailed the fighting spirit of his young team after they scraped past a gallant Ivory Coast for a 2-1 win here that ensured the Oranje a passage to the last 16.
PHOTO: AFP
Two goals midway through the first half from Robin van Persie and Ruud van Nistelrooy gave the Netherlands a cracking start to a pulsating game.
The African Nations Cup runners-up hit back with a wonder goal in the 38th minute from Bakary Kone, but the Dutch defense then held out against wave after wave of Ivorian attack for the remainder of the game.
"We started very well. We played good football, created some chances and we scored two goals," 41-year-old van Basten said.
PHOTO: EPA
"But we sat back a bit and they came at us, started playing some football and made it difficult to the last minute. We were happy to end the game with a victory," said van Basten, whose side will now play Argentina, 6-0 winners over Serbia and Montenegro earlier on Friday, in a dead game on Wednesday before going into the second round of 16 three days later.
The Dutch defense was stretched all over the park by the strong-running Africans in the second half, but the coach said they did a good job in only conceding one goal.
"The defenders did a very good job. We only took one goal," said the former AC Milan and Dutch striking legend, who scored one of the greatest goals of all time as the national side beat the then Soviet Union in the Euro 1988 final.
Ivory Coast coach Henri Michel said the result showed the gulf between the small and big nations at the World Cup.
"It's more than disappointing. We had a lot of hope going into this tournament," said the Frenchman, who took the Ivory Coast to the final of this year's African Nations Cup, the fourth finals in a row that he has successfully taken African teams to the finals.
"Everyone tells me this team plays great football. What's more important is the result. And the result was not good. We're out and that's the bottom line," Michel said.
"It means that Ivory Coast are still not at the level of the big teams at the World Cup. We conceded four goals here and that is too much," added Michel, who refused to comment on his future and said he was focused only on their third Group C match.
Ivory Coast lost their opening match against Argentina, also 2-1, and Michel said it would be very difficult to get his team up and running for the game against Serbia and Montenegro.
"When you're in our situation, it's very difficult to motivate the players, to tell them that they can't leave like that but leave with their heads held high," said Michel, who was forced to watch the Ivory Coast's home qualifiers from his home in Beirut because it was judged too dangerous for him to travel to the war-torn country.
Captain Didier Drogba, whose second yellow card of the tournament will see him miss the Serb game, lamented the luck of the draw that saw his team pooled with such heavyweights as the Netherlands, Argentina and Serbia and Montenegro.
"The draw was fatal," said the 28-year-old Chelsea striker, also regretting his young team's lack of experience at big tournaments.
"We lost to great teams without being discredited. Despite the disappointment there are still some positives. I just hope this team will not be broken up, because it has some real talent," Drogba said.
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