Three points, job done

Saturday 11 October 2008

In a decent 90 minutes the Netherlands did what they had to do against Iceland and that was gain three points.

With the maximum score from 2 games and Norway and Scotland dropping points again Holland are now top of the table.

Wednesday Holland can really make a big step towards South Africa if they manage to get a result in Norway.

Even though the Icelanders had some half chances to score the match was never a match.

Joris Mathijsen opened the score in the 15th minute and after that the home team threatened to overrun the Scandinavians.

But apart from some good efforts by Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt and a big chance for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Holland did little with their superiority.

After the break Holland never found back to the level of the second part of the first half, mainly due to the lack of any wing play.

But with both Robben and Van Persie missing that could perhaps be expected.

At times the team of Bert van Marwijk still played well, but they never dominated the visitors as they did in the first half.

Huntelaar's goal to double the score for Holland was one of the highlights though.

After a great Van der Vaart pass the Ajax forward seemed to drift of to far to the side but he then surprisingly beat Gunnleifsson with a great shot to the far post.

In the last ten minutes the return of Wesley Sneijder and the entry of Ibrahim Afellay brought some new life but no extra goals.

Still Holland boss Bert van was happy with the result: "And I think we didn't play all that bad. I saw some nice, fast combinations. The only thing we should have done better is scoring goals. But we are top the table. On Wednesday we have a tough match in Norway, but I am confident we can do well there as well."

That match Van Marwijk will not have Nigel de Jong at his disposal.

The midfielder had to get off after only 12 minutes of play with a knee injury and it is feared he will be out for several weeks.

The table in group 9.

Watch the highlights