Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Brasilia: The Netherlands claimed third place at the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a comfortable 3-0 win over hosts Brazil on Saturday as the curtain came down on the Selecao's sorry end to the tournament ended with another unconvincing display.
Things couldn't have started worse for a Brazil side looking to atone for going down 7-1 to Germany in last Tuesday's semi-final in what was the country's heaviest ever defeat as the Netherlands went 1-0 up with just three minutes at the Estadio Nacional played.Brazil were boosted by the return of skipper Thiago Silva, who was expected to add some stability to a defence that was torn apart by the Germans, but it was the Paris Saint Germain centre back that was at fault for the opener.
With Arjen Robben charging in on goal he pulled back the flying Dutchman and while the incident appeared to have occurred outside the area Algerian referee Djemal Haimoudi pointed to the spot before booking the Brazilian who could easily have been sent off for denying a clear scoring opportunity.
Julio Cesar guessed correctly but Robin van Persie's penalty had too much purchase and flew past the Brazilian keeper and high into the side of the net.
An error from Thiago Silva's recently-recruited PSG team-mate David Luiz saw the Dutch double their lead 14 minutes later when the former Chelsea man inexplicably headed Jonathan de Guzman's centre directly back across the penalty box to an unmarked Daley Blind, who had ample time and space to control the ball and despatch it powerfully into the Brazilian net for his first international goal.
Brazil needed a spark to lift an increasingly agitated crowd and it came in the form of Oscar, scorer of their consolation against the Germans.
Oscar tested Dutch keeper Jasper Cillissen with a low drive in the 21st minute before the Chelsea midfielder's attacking guile won a succession of free-kicks in dangerous positions, the best of which came seven minutes from the break when Paulinho and David Luiz narrowly failed to connect with the talented 22-year-old's tantalising curler into the area.
Brazil vigorously probed for a way back into the match and dominated possession despite being unable to penetrate the Dutch defence although the fans of the five-time World Cup winners felt that Haimoudi denied them two penalties.
The first came in the 63rd minute when Ron Vlaar appeared to block Maicon's cross with his arm and the second five minutes later, when Oscar went down after a challenge from Blind and despite clear contact from the Dutchman, who went off injured shortly after, Oscar unluckily became the first player at Brazil 2014 to be booked for simulation.
Brazil continued to probe but were devoid of attacking ideas against a well-organised Netherlands side, who added a third 60 seconds into the five additional minutes displayed by the board of Japanese fourth official Yuichi Nishimuira.
Oscar lost possession to Daryl Janmaat who exchanged passes with Robben allowing the Feyenoord defender to cut the ball across to Georginio Wijnaldum who side-footed the third past Julio Cesar to hammer the final nail into Brazil's World Cup coffin.
Photo: AFP