Wayward Dutch eclipsed amid shower of cards

It has been clear since Euro 2004 that Portugal are a better team than Holland, but just to make sure they proved it again on Sunday night, in a slugfest in which four men were sent off.

Costinha and Deco got double-yellow cards for Portugal, and Khalid Boulahrouz and Van Bronckhorst for Holland, but more could have gone after the first bench-clearing melees of the World Cup. The Russian referee Nikolay Golubev ended up booking a majority of the players.

Two years ago this week Portugal had outclassed Holland 2-1 in the European semi-final in Lisbon. On Sunday Holland again lost at their own game, being outpassed by a team with wingers.

Once again Luis Figo excelled. Once again Miguel marked Holland's most important forward, Arjen Robben, into invisibility. Once again the Portuguese identified Holland's weakest defender in Gio van Bronckhorst at left-back, who seems to hate tackling, and ran their attacks through him. Once again Holland replied with an opportunistic game that has been called "total kick-and-rush-football", punting balls at the centre-forward's head à la early Cambridge United. This time that centre-forward was Dirk Kuyt, picked ahead of Ruud van Nistelrooy. Kuyt's main strategy was to seek penalties.

Punishment came on 23 minutes. Van Bronckhorst watched as Deco put in a clever low cross from the right, and Pauleta laid back to Maniche, who found the corner of the net amid Dutch mayhem.

Holland's defenders Khalid Boulahrouz and Andre Ooijer fell over for the goal, and that Joris Mathijsen played a World Cup will be a source of wonder to future generations. Maniche, voted man of the match, could have had two more, but he once fired just over from long range, and later, from a pass from Figo, saw his drive caught by the Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar, Holland's record international probably playing his last international.

The best Dutch chance was a typically opportunistic one. Just after half-time a bad cross rebounded off Nuno Valente to Phillip Cocu, playing his 101st and last international, and from eight yards he drove at the underside of the bar. He deserved a better end, though Holland didn't. A defence will struggle when its best passer is the goalkeeper.

Portugal's chief weakness is a tendency to play in too low a gear, and Holland got the odd chance. On 80 minutes Kuyt, put through alone on Ricardo, pushed straight at the keeper. There followed a lengthy injury break for the clownish Ricardo, who last night managed to waste almost as much time as in the 2004 encounter despite the change of rules in between.

Van Bronckhorst, Deco and Boulahrouz finished the game sitting side by side on a bench discussing the match together. "I think the referee didn't dignify football," said Maniche. "We dignified our country." His coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said: "I believe victory was normal."

Dutch coach Marco Van Basten simply said: "Portugal pulled the game over the finish-line with tricks, theatre and time-wasting."

Afterwards Holland's players lay slumped on the pitch, while the speaker played the presumably ironic song, "Oh Netherlands, you are the champion." The demise of this unexciting side was rubbed in by German chants of "Without Holland we're going to Berlin."

To the hosts, this practically felt like a German victory. Holland didn't simply lose but had the pointlessness of their unimaginative campaign made undeniable.