Arjen Robben's opener gave Holland a comfortable, if listless, victory. Pic via Guardian.
Netherlands 2: Robben 18, Sneijder 84
Slovakia 1: Vittek 90+4 (pen)
Robin van Persie played 80 minutes of today's 2-1 victory for Holland over Slovakia in the Round of 16, but he, along with many of his Dutch teammates, did not have the best of games. Sure, they won fairly comfortably. It never seemed doubtful that the Dutch would lose this one. But Slovakia were a bit pesky, had one or two chances in the second half, and showed that if the Dutch play like this again on Friday, likely against Brazil, they're probably headed home.
Van Persie has had a great tournament so far, by far the best showing from an Arsenal player. That said, this match was his worst of the four. Arjen Robben scored a brilliant goal in the 18th minute, a classic Dutch strike, in his first start of the tournament, after he suffered a knock in their final friendly before the World Cup. RvP was subbed out in the 80th minute, unhappy with the manager's decision to remove him, even though he's been pulled around that mark in every match of the World Cup so far. Holland scored an insurance goal when the Slovaks fell asleep on a quick free kick in the 84th before pulling one back deep into stoppage time on a penalty kick.
Holland will know their quarter-final opponent later today as Brazil takes on Chile. As before, Arsenal still has two players remaining in the World Cup. Next matches for both are as follows:
Cesc Fabregas: Spain v. Portugal, Tuesday late game (2:30 p.m. EST, 7:30 p.m. BST)
Robin van Persie: Netherlands v. Brazil or Chile, Friday early game (10:00 a.m. EST, 3:00 p.m. BST)
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