Four off as Portugal send Dutch home

Portugal moved into the quarter finals on Sunday after a Maniche goal settled a tempestuous match with the Dutch which saw four sent off. The former Porto midfielder rounded off a superb first-half passing move to sink Marco van Basten's side in a game ruined by a festival of cards in Nuremberg.
Russian referee Valentin Ivanov produced his first yellow after just two minutes and raced to a World Cup record as he reduced both sides to nine men by the final whistle, showing a total 16 yellow cards in a game which threatened to explode into chaos.

Portugal midfielder Costinha was the first to go - a stupid deliberate handball in first-half injury time earning him a needless second yellow.
By that time, Portugal were already one to the good.
Cristiano Ronaldo held the ball up on the right before feeding Deco down the flank - the Barcelona player's hard low ball into the box taken under Pauleta's wing before he teed up Maniche who - with a neat sidestep - fired past Edwin van der Sar.
"Falling a goal behind was no problem but then you have to score the first chance you get and that one we missed," said Van der Sar, who won a Dutch record 113th cap in the game.
The culprit was Robin van Persie.
With Ruud van Nistelrooy dropped in favour of Dirk Kuijt, Van Persie and Arjen Robben on the opposite flank were expected to find the goals to avenge the Netherland's Euro 2004 semi-final defeat to the Portuguese.
And the Arsenal midfielder should have grabbed a leveller eight minutes before the interval after bamboozling Nuno Valente and Ricardo Carvalho with an outrageous feint only to bend his shot wide of the far post.
But in a hot-tempered second half, Ivanov risked losing total control as players contested every decision, rushing in whenever a team-mate was fouled to demand retribution.


HEADBUTTED
The spark was provided just before the hour mark by the habitually cool Luis Figo, who - unseen by Ivanov - headbutted Mark van Bommel following a foul by Giovanni van Bronckhorst on Barcelona team-mate Deco.
Simao - on for Cristiano Ronaldo, who suffered a thigh injury which looked serious enough to threaten his participation against England - went close with the free-kick, but that was a mere footnote as collisions, cards and mass melees became the order of the day.

DESPERATION
It was Figo's reaction to what appeared an innocent stray Khalid Boulahrouz arm just three minutes later which saw the Dutch defender sent off for elbowing, before Deco picked up two bookings in six minutes to join him on the sidelines.
In desperation, Marco van Basten threw on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink - leaving Van Nistelrooy rooted to the bench - and Kuijt twice came close to finding a dramatic late leveller.
But it was left to Van Bronckhorst and the increasingly hapless Mr Ivanov to even things up for the Dutch.
Van Bronckhorst clipped the heels of Tiago, Mr Ivanov providing the customary second yellow card and giving the Dutch left-back the right to slip in alongside club-mate Deco on the sidelines to discuss the fiasco.

"It was an extremely difficult game," admitted Figo. "We were good in the first half, but after we started playing with nine men it was a lot of work.
"The team should be congratulated for demonstrating such character."