Chelsea’s Arjen Robben has scored the only goal in the Netherlands’ 1-0 win against a hard battling Serbia and Montenegro in Group C on Sunday.

Robben broke free from the Serbian off-side trap in the 18th minute and in his one-on-one with the Serbian keeper, placed the shot past the keeper for a wonderful solo goal.

The Dutch seemed very much in control of the game in the first-half, and it wasn’t until Nenan Djorddjevic came off for Ognjen Koroman in the 42nd minute that the Eastern Europeans looked threatening.

Koroman immediately livened up the Serbia and Montenegro attack, hitting the post in the last minute of the first-half.

The second-half saw the Serbian’s starting to pressure the Dutch goal more, with Koroman opening up spaces for attacks, but also the Netherlands were counter attacking, with Robben making some decent runs down the left-flank, but lacking the service in the centre of attack.

In the 66th minute, Serbia and Montenegro coach Ilija Petkovic replaced Mateja Kezman with Danijel Ljuboja, who added to the pressure on the Oranje goal, and also brought on Nikola Zigic, who’s height caused problems for the Dutch defence.

Oranje coach Marco van Basten substituted Ruud van Nistelrooy for Dirk Kuyt minutes later in an attempt to get a second goal for the Dutch.

But the Serbian’s were making life very difficult for the Dutch, with the three substitutes all making incisive runs into the Dutch box and forcing Oranje keeper Edwin van der Saar into some close-range saves.

Serbia and Montenegro seemed very happy with the high tempo of the game and looked very much the stronger team in the second-half, but the Dutch almost doubled the lead when Arsenal’s Robin van Persie played in a screaming free-kick that just needed the slightest of touches from Dirk Kuyt to edge it past Serbian keeper Dragoslav Jevric in the 81st minute.

Serbia and Montenegro kept pushing for the equaliser, forcing a couple of corners, but could find no way through.

In the last minute of normal time, Gavrancic brought down Arjen Robben just outside the Serbian penalty area, and the resulting free-kick gave plenty of time for the Netherlands to waste, and the resulting kick was shot high and wide.

Serbia will feel hard done by that they didn't gain at least a point from the match, but were made to pay for the total lack of cohesion from the players in the first-half by the Oranje, and more especially, the excellent Arjen Robben, who ran his socks-off in the heat for the Dutch cause.

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