Round of 16

Netherlands 2 Slovakia 1 (Durban)
A patient Dutch side did enough without exerting themselves to get past Slovakia and reach the quarter finals. Sneijder delivered a long pass to Arjen Robben who cut inside and rolled the ball into the bottom right corner in the 18th minute and with 4 minutes of the half remaining van Persie had a shot on goal that was comfortably saved by Mucha. A nice piece of skill by van Persie 5 minutes after the break was cleared out as far as Robben who advanced into a shooting position and shot just wide of the far post, and 8 minutes later a van Persie free-kick from the right was punched away. In the 67th minute Stekelenburg made 2 saves in quick succession, getting a hand to push over a shot that Stoch unleashed from inside the box and moments later making a powerful save to deny Vittek who had got into a shooting position in the penalty area. Mucha did well to get down in the 73rd minute and push away a fierce shot from Kuyt, but his misjudgement in leaving his goal in the 84th minute enabled Kuyt to head the ball past him and pull back for Sneijder to double the Dutch lead. Slovakia were awarded a penalty in stoppage time for Stekelenburg's foul on Vittek who sent the keeper the wrong way with the last kick of the match.

Brazil 3 Chile 0 (Johannesburg)

Brazil eased past Chile to set up a mouth-watering encounter with the Netherlands for a place in the semis. A shot from Gilberto Silva was saved by the flying Bravo in the 9th minute, but in the 34th minute Juan dispatched a firm header from a corner-kick into the back of the net and 4 minutes later Robinho on the left found Kaka who put Luis Fabiano through to dance past the keeper and put Brazil 2 up. In the 59th minute Ramirez picked the ball up on the halfway line and ran to the 18-yard line where Robinho passed it into the right corner to give Brazil an unassailable lead. Robinho's shot across goal was saved by Bravo in the 74th minute and a minute later at the other end Suazo twisted and turned in the box before bringing a save out of Julio Cesar who watched a volley from Suazo bounce off the crossbar in the 78th minute.