Robin Van Persie finally scored after his 11th attempt (Six on target, 5 off). But so did Mario Gomez, twice in fact. The German striker showed a wonderful touch, a sort of Bergkampesque pirouette to score his first goal after receiving the ball from Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Schweini was on point again slipping in Gomez as the Dutch criminally went to sleep for Germany’s second goal. Gomez is tied with Alan Dzagoev as top scorer with three goals a piece. One doesn’t see Bert Van Marwijk holding onto his job if the Dutch don’t progress. They were actually given a lifeline as Denmark lost to Portugal otherwise it would have been all over for them.
They meet Portugal in the last match and will have to beat them by a considerable margin as they are -2 in goal differential compared to the even record of the Portugese. This assuming Germany does its job off seeing of Denmark. If all three teams are tied on points and goal differential (with identical goals for/ goals against), UEFA goes to its country co-efficients which favours Portugal over Netherlands and Denmark. A horrible way to end it all.