Just when it looked like Mexico were heading into the quarter-finals, a remarkable late fightback snatched victory for Holland with two goals in the dying minutes.
What looked like being the decisive goal came at the start of the second half when Giovani dos Santos gave Mexico the lead.
And it looked ominous for the Dutch when Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa made a string of outstanding saves to frustrate Louis Van Gaal’s men.
But the Dutch manager changed things round replacing Robin Van Persie with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and was rewarded with a stunning late surge that began with a brilliant strike by Wesley Sneijder two minutes from the end of normal time.Watch The Channel (2016) Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download
Then deep into time added on substitute Huntelaar was ice cool in the searing heat to give Holland a remarkable win from the penalty spot after another dazzling run from Arjen Robben won the spot kick.
Costa Rica spot on with perfect penalty shoot out to eliminate stubborn Greece
The team Holland will face in the quarter final is Costa Rica who had to dig deep to see off the challenge of Greece in tonight’s other dramatic Round of 16 game.
The Greeks fell behind when Brian Ruiz struck at the start of the second half. But a red card left the Costa Ricans with 10 men and looked like the turning point. Just as they’d done to eliminate the Ivory Coast in their previous match the Greeks saved themselves in injury time with an equaliser from Socrates Papastathopoulos.
No goals in extra time meant the match went to penalties . . . and the Costa Ricans scored 5 out of 5 to claim a place in the quarter-finals for the first in their history.
The Dutch will now really fancy their chances of making the final 4 and will start as huge favourites in next Saturday’s quarter final. But no one is writing off the Costa Ricans as no hopers – they’ve already eliminated England, Italy, Uruguay and now Greece.
