The “Orange team will meet the debutant as its own independent country Slovakia.
Both teams will meet for the first time since Slovakia, has become an independent country. Before that they have met only once with Czechoslovakia in France 1938, where Netherlands lost with 3:0, after extra time.
What has happened so far? Netherlands as expected topped the group with 9 points beating all three opponents. A brilliant first game and a victory with 2:0, a hard win against Japan with 1:0 and a good come back against Cameroon, after loosing with 0:1 a win with 2:1.
Slovakia on the other hand started bad tying with the outsider of the group New Zealand and loosing from Paraguay. However they pulled quite a stunt at the end, winning 3:2 over Italy, thus sending the former World Champion at home early.
What to expect from this game?
Well since Netherlands are the favorite here, I would expect nothing less but orange domination. With Van Persia and Roben in the squad, Holland is hard to be stopped. However since it’s direct elimination, I don’t expect Slovakia to play defensively as well. In fact history remembers a lot of teams who were the surprise of the world cup which went far into the tournament.
It will be an interesting game for sure
The Betting Verdict?
Over 2.5 Goals @ 2.00 (Bet365.com): So far all four games in the Round of 16 has ended over 2.5 goals. Looks like a trend is forming here and it’s good to take the chance and “ride” it. Seems like after all of the Under 2.5 goal games in the group stage, the teams are finally going offensively on each other.
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