As the first day of the round of 16 concludes, the favourites, Brazil and the Netherlands, lived up to their names and and beat the ferocious Chile and Slovakia. The two teams will now move on and face each other in the quarter-finals. This will be the third time that the two teams will square off against each other in the knockout stages in recent history. The Brazilians came out victorious in both matches, the first during the 1994 cup in the USA and the second in France during the 98′ world cup.  This year’s teams seem to promise a great match once again.
The 2010 Brazilians dominated their game and were very impressive in a 3-0 victory over Chile at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, the setting for their FIFA Confederations Cup final triumph last year. Producing some compelling football at times, they once again proved lethal in front of goal, taking their chances and as a result reigned supreme. Falling somewhat short of the standards they set in the groups stage, the Chilean national team lost in the same way, to the same team as they did in the 1998 world cup in the round of 16. For a team that had so much hope of reaching further rounds in this tournament, it was a depressing way to be eliminated out of a tournament that had promised Chile much success.
In today’s first match, the Dutch came out firing and won in an incredible performance against Team Slovakia. Slovakia seemed to be no match for the orangemen as the 2-1 victory seemed to come at ease to them. The last time in history Team Netherlands has played this well and had gained the hype it currently has was in the 1974 World Cup where they lost to West Germany in the finals.
Overall, the match between the two teams has the potential to become one the greatest matches in this year’s World Cup tournament. The return of Netherlands’ Arjen Robben clearly contributed much in this round of 16 victory and will surely make the Netherlands a more challenging opponent for Brazil.
Future Projection of Brazil vs. Netherlands Match:
3-2 Brazil
