Netherlands' Beautiful Win Agains Bulgaria

Goals from Wesley Sneijder and Ruud van Nistelrooy handed the Netherlands a 2-0 win over Bulgaria, thus catapulting them into that all-important second place ahead of their opponents.


The pressure on the two sides was immense after Romania won 3-1 away from home to go five points clear at the top of Group G.

A defeat here for the Dutch, and it could well have been curtains.

However, Marco van Basten's boys responded to the pressure by picking up a gutsy win over Bulgaria, who put up quite a fight at the Amsterdam ArenA.

In the end it was goals from La Liga's man of the moment Wesley Sneijder, and his Real Madrid teammate Ruud van Nistelrooy, that made the difference.

After a tricky opening spell in which the Bulgarians caused a few problems, Sneijder opened the scoring in the 28th minute after he was brought down on the edge of the box by Stainslav Angelov.

He curled a fine free-kick into the net against Villarreal last Sunday, and bent in another similar effort from 25 yards out to make Marco van Basten jump on the touchline.

That calmed the home side down, who began to keep the ball better, looking to play some good football. However, there were no big chances as the game headed into the break.

The second half once again saw the Bulgarians come out firing. But once again, it was the home side that held firm before landing the decisive blow, Ruud van Nistelrooy finishing off a fine right-wing cross from Ryan Babel just before the hour mark.

Bulgarians attampted a come-back, but it was never really on after that killer second goal. The Dutch now lie second, three points behind Romania, and two clear of Bulgaria with a superior head-to-head record.