The Dutch had already secured their place in the round of 16, having won their previous two games against Denmark and Japan. They were determined to beat Cameroon and build momentum going into the round of 16 and that is precisely what they did with a 2-1 victory.

The Green Point Stadium in Cape Town had over 60,000 supporters and many of them were in orange, leaving no one in doubt as to which team they were supporting. The Dutch did not let down their fans as Kuyt and Van Der Vaart combined to create an opening for Persie who scored in the 36th minute of the game.

The first half ended with the score on 1-0 and it was clear that Cameroon needed a better strategy to penetrate the Dutch defense. They came back in the second half and played a better game and were rewarded with a penalty in the 65th minute which Eto’o converted to make the score 1-1.

With this goal, Eto’o is now his country’s leading goal scorer. With a 1-1 scoreline, the Dutch decided to turn on the pressure and test the Cameroon defense. Their star striker Arjen Robben who was brought on in the second half fired in a cracking left footed shot which ended up hitting the post and gave Klaas-Jan Huntelaar an easy opening, which gave the Dutch a 2-1 lead.

The Dutch have been very careful in playing Robben who is recovering from injury. They want him to be one hundred percent fit when they take on bigger opponents. After the game, Robben was close to tears and told reporters “This is an important moment for me. This is what I’ve done all that work before for. There’s a long way to go. I have to fight very hard and see it as a reward that I am back on the field. People don’t always know that it is not easy to be injured. It is an ordeal. But I must be honest with myself; I know I'm still not 100 per cent”

Dutch coach, Bert van Marwijk was not a happy man. He said “Let me say that today I wasn't 100 per cent satisfied. I was with the fact that we won but the second half was very average. In the previous two games we controlled the game more. Only after the (score was) 1-1 did we start to play and you could see we can play and didn't give it away.”

In their next match, the Dutch take on Slovakia who sent current world champions Italy packing on Thursday.