Portugal have beaten Holland 1-0 in Nüremburg on Sunday and now face England in the quarter-finals. They won with a first-half strike from Maniche, with both Portugal and Holland reduced to nine-men, as the second-half descended into farce with 16 yellow-cards issued by the referee.

Both teams started strongly, with Holland shading the possession in the opening minutes.

Mark van Bommel and Arjen Robben both had half-chances at the start of the match for Holland, with Pauleta having an attempt for Portugal but nothing to test either keeper.

Portugal opened the scoring after finally finding their feet in the game in the 23rd minute with a lovely strike from Maniche.

Barcelona’s Deco played the ball in to PSG’s Pauleta, who played the ball onto Maniche in the centre, for him to blast the ball past Edwin van der Sar in the Oranje goal and make it 1-0.

A tearful Ronaldo was substituted in the 34th minute, after suffering an earlier knock in a high-tackle from Holland defender Khalid Boulahrouz, which left him struggling for some time.

Holland were now dominant in possession after the short wave of Portuguese dominance, with shots from Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie going wide of Ricardo’s goal.

A dangerous free-kick for Holland was shot well over the bar as Holland pressed for an equaliser, but on the break Portugal almost doubled their lead when Pauleta turned well in the box, but his shot was parried away by van der Sar.

Costinha was sent-off for Portugal for his second yellow-card in injury-time of the first, after handballing, to leave Portugal with 10-men.

The half finished 1-0, but seeing Holland with the majority of possession and Portugal down to 10-men.

The second-half saw a host of chances for Holland, with Phillip Cocu hittng the crossbar, but Portugal weren’t showing their numerical disadvantage and forced some good saves from van der Sar.

The Portugal captain Luis Figo was then seen by the TV cameras to have head-butted a Dutch player, which will no doubt cause a FIFA investigation.

Minutes later Khalid Boulahrouz was sent-off for a second yellow-card for a completely non-intentional elbow on Figo, who theatrically dived clutching his face, and the card-happy referee sent-off the Dutch defender.

The game then descended into farce when Deco hacked-down substitute John Heitinga, the resulting melee saw Deco, as well as Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart, with Ricardo and Nuno Valente both getting booked a minute later as both teams started targeting each other, rather than the ball.

Minutes later Deco was sent-off after receiving a second yellow-card for timewasting, and being given his marching orders in the 78th minute, with the referee having issued 15 warnings to that point.

With Portugal now down to nine-men and with Holland down to ten, Holland were again pushing for an equaliser with Liverpool target Dirk Kuyt sliding in on a ball, but his hit went straight at Ricardo.

Holland came within inches of scoring on a couple of occasions but were defended well by the desperate Portuguese, with the fourth-official giving six-minutes of injury-time.

The pressure was still from Holland as they desperately tried to find an equaliser, but a late sending-off for a non-tackle by Giovanni van Bronckhorst saw the game end 1-0 to Portugal, who now face England without the services of both Deco and Costinha who were sent-off, and possibly their captain Luis Figo.

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