A match, which promised to scale new heights, turned into a bloody, bruised and bad-tempered battle on Sunday night to claim a place in World Cup history for all the wrong reasons. A beautifully executed goal by Maniche got washed away in the deluge of four red and 16 yellow cards. It was football at its ugliest.

Both The Netherlands and Portugal have their own football history. Marco van Basten’s side has a special place in World Cup folklore, thanks to their two final appearances. Portugal, on the other hand, featured in the 1966 semi-finals. The exploits of Johan Cruyff and Eusebio are still admired all over the globe. Seeing their countrymen fight, instead of playing football, was a painful experience.

I feel Russian referee Valentin Ivanov made a mess of this match. At one point of time, I was wondering who will be the next in his line of fire.

In the end, Portugal won 1-0 and set up a mouth-watering quarter final with 1966 champions England. The chance of emulating that Eusebio-powered feat is very much real.

The start of the match hardly suggested what was to come. In the 23rd minute, Deco sent in a low cross for Pauleta, who laid it off for Maniche on the right. The midfielder side-stepped Andre Ooijer’s challenge before unleashing a sweetly-timed right-footer. Even the tall Edwin van der Sar couldn’t stop it.

The Dutch enjoyed better ball possession, but could not translate it to anything threatening. Even when Portugal were down to 10 men, and then nine, inexperience in the Dutch attack came through because of Van Nistelrooy’s absence. True, Van Basten’s side had conceded just two goals in the group stage and held Argentina goalless, but against big teams, you need inspiration up front. Without Nistelrooy, that vital element was missing.

Leaving him on the bench was Van Basten’s biggest mistake. Why was the Manchester United striker kept out? Was it due to some personal problem? Is the coach’s ego bigger than the country’s interests? Van Nistelrooy’s replacement Dirk Kuyt didn’t make much of an impact, and this allowed the Portugal defence some breathing space when they were a man short.

Figo & Co. played their hearts out in defending the lead and full credit to them and coach Scolari for displaying this combative spirit.

Portugal may have crossed a tough hurdle, but in doing so, had to pay a heavy price. Deco and Costinha were red-carded and thus will be out of the England match. Moreover, as many as five others ? including Figo ? are on one booking.

Khalid Boulahrouz’s challenge on Cristiano Ronaldo was a clear red-card offence, but I hope the injury doesn’t force the young Portuguese out of the quarter final. Portugal now have a different battle to fight against England.

SCORERS’ LIST

• Four — Miroslav Klose
• Three — Hernan Crespo, Maxi Rodriguez, Lukas Podolski, Fernando Torres
• Two — Tim Cahill, Ronaldo, Paulo Wanchope, Tomas Rosicky, Agustin Delgado, Carlos Tenorio, Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry, Aruna Dindane, Omar Bravo, Bartosz Bosacki, David Villa, Alexander Frei, Andriy Shevchenko, Maniche
• One — Flavio, Esteban Cambiasso, Lionel Messi, Javier Saviola, Carlos Tevez, John Aloisi, Harry Kewell, Craig Moore, Adriano, Fred, Gilberto, Juninho Pernambucano, Kaka, Ronald Gomez, Darijo Srna, Niko Kovac, Jan Koller, Ivan Kaviedes, Joe Cole, Peter Crouch, Patrick Vieira, Torsten Frings, Philipp Lahm, Oliver Neuville, Stephen Appiah, Haminu Draman, Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari, Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh, Yahya Golmohammadi, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Filippo Inzaghi, Alberto Gilardino, Marco Materazzi, Andrea Pirlo, Didier Drogba, Bonaventure Kalou, Bakary Kone, Shunsuke Nakamura, Keiji Tamada, Francisco Fonseca, Rafael Marquez, Antonio Naelson Zinha, Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Nelson Cuevas, Deco, Pauleta, Cristiano Ronaldo, Simao Sabrosa, Sami al-Jaber, Yasser al-Qahtani, Sasa Ilic, Nikola Zigic, Xabi Alonso, Juanito Gutierrez, Raul Gonzalez, Ahn Jung-hwan, Lee Chun-soo, Park Ji-sung, Marcus Allback, Henrik Larsson, Fredrik Ljungberg, Tranquillo Barnetta, Philippe Senderos, Mohamed Kader, Radhi Jaidi, Ziad Jaziri, Jawhar Menari, Maxim Kalinichenko, Andriy Rusol, Serhiy Rebrov, Clint Dempsey, David Beckham, Francesco Totti
• Own goal — Cristian Zaccardo, Carlos Gamarra, Brent Sancho

Note: Updated till the end of the Italy-Australia match