The Dutch have always been an exciting team producing star players over the years like Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard but have never managed to make the world cup finals since 1978.

All that changed on Tuesday, when they eliminated Uruguay and secured a place in the finals. The match was a close contest and the men in orange found it extremely hard to get past the tight Uruguayan midfield.

Captain and defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst opened the scoring with a superb left footed strike from 40 yards out to give the Dutch their opening goal. It was a powerful strike and would have defeated any goalkeeper. The Uruguayans came back hard and it was Diego Forlan who scored the equalizer when he sent in a left footed shot that went over goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg to make it a 1-1 score at half time.

Yet, it was the Dutch who scored back to back goals in the 70th minute through Wesley Sneijder and in the 73rd minute through Arjen Robben. The 3-1 lead appeared to be decisive but just as it appeared that the game was over, defender Maximiliano Pereira scored again for Uruguay to make it 3-2.

In the final minutes of extra time, the Uruguayans turned on the pressure and gave it everything to find the equalizer. They came close to scoring but the Dutch managed to hold on. Uruguay was clearly missing the services of Luis Suarez who was sent off in their last game due to a red card and defender Jorge Fucile due to injury.

The Uruguayans can go home knowing they gave it their very best and must feel extremely proud to have reached the semi finals. Coach Oscar Tabarez said “I'm proud of the team. They've played on an equal footing with the Netherlands. You couldn't ask for more from these players. We went very far; no one expected it, so that helps the sadness of defeat.”

The Netherlands will now face either Germany or Spain in the finals and will be expecting both Sneijder and Robben to fire again for them. Sneijder now has 5 goals in the tournament along with Spain’s David Villa.

The Dutch coach Bert van Marwick told reporters after the match “We survived, and we were just so relieved in the locker room. It’s quite something we’ve achieved after 32 years, and it’s something I thought about toward the end on the bench. This is great, but the thing is we’re not there yet.”

Another night of celebration in Holland but will they still be celebrating on Sunday!