WORLD CUP: Netherland romps into round of 16
challenge of expectation after their stunning
victory over Spain as they prepare to take on
Australia.
Louis van Gaal's side routed the defending
champions in their World Cup opener, giving
full value for a 5-1 victory that might have
easily been embellished further as the Dutch
tore their opponents apart.
Van Persie and Arjen Robben each scored
twice, turning in irresistible attacking
performances that defied their status as
underdogs going into the match.
That is a tag they can forget about for the
remainder of the tournament, having produced
the performance of the competition to date.
They will now be expected to brush aside
Australia at Porto Alegre on Wednesday and
Van Persie accepts that his side must now
deal with being among the favourites.
"Everybody is euphoric and happy in the
Netherlands. We are dealing with people's
expectations here, which had been low
compared to other years," he told FIFA.com
"I actually think this worked to our advantage
because nobody expected much from us. But
after such a performance, the dynamics have
naturally changed. However, as a country, we
shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. We have to
stay realistic."
The Manchester United striker, whose athletic
header to make it 1-1 against Spain is
destined to go down as a defining moment of
the World Cup, stressed the need for cool
heads to counteract the inevitable hype.
"The tournament has barely started yet. We
achieved an impressive result but we have a
long way to go to win this tournament.
"This is my fifth [major] tournament and I
know how these things work: the euphoria
vanishes just as quickly as it appears. So we
have to make sure that we hold on to it - not
only for the people and fans, but also for
ourselves."
The Socceroos lost their opener 3-1 to a
vibrant Chile and need a result to stay alive in
the competition.
It is a big ask for them to tame L'Oranje but
veteran midfielder Mark Bresciano expects
Australia to have learned lessons from their
first match in Brazil.
"For a lot of guys this is their first tournament
like this and we were not all there at the
beginning," he said.
"Against Chile, we gave it away in the first 20
minutes. Now we have all experienced how it
is here and against the Dutch we will just
stand up from the first minute.
"We can hope they have a bad day and that we
can benefit. We must be ready to take any
small chance and function well as a team".
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