page_title: History of the Netherlands national football team
section_title: 2006–2010
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Netherlands national football team / History / 2006–2010
caption_attribution_description: Netherlands national football team
context_page_description: The history of the Netherlands national football team began when the Netherlands played their first international match on 30 April 1905 in Antwerp against Belgium. The game went into extra time, in which the Dutch scored three times, making the score 4–1 for the Dutch side, winning the Coupe Vanden Abeele
  The Netherlands national football team made its first appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 1934, Italy. The Dutch hold the record for playing the most World Cup finals without ever winning the tournament. They finished second in the 1974, 1978 and 2010 World Cups, losing to West Germany, Argentina and Spain respectively. They won the UEFA European Championship in 1988.
context_section_description: The Netherlands qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and finished second in Group C after beating Serbia & Montenegro (1–0) and Ivory Coast (2–1) and drawing Argentina (0–0). Both Argentina and the Netherlands finished the group stage with seven points, but the Argentinians had a superior goal difference and finished first as a result. The Dutch were eliminated in the second round after losing 1–0 to Portugal, in a match that produced 16 yellow cards (which matched the World Cup record for most cautions in one game set in 2002) and set a new World Cup record of four red cards (two for either side) and was nicknamed "the Battle of Nuremberg" by the press. Despite criticism surrounding his selection policy and the lack of attacking football from his team, Marco van Basten was offered a two-year extension to his contract by the Dutch FA, which would allow him to serve as national coach during Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. The move was widely regarded as a vote of confidence in van Basten and his assistants by the KNVB officials.
  The Netherlands began their Euro 2008 campaign with a win in Luxembourg on 2 September 2006. On 8 September 2007, the Oranje beat Bulgaria at the Amsterdam Arena on goals by Wesley Sneijder and Ruud van Nistelrooy. On 12 September 2007, the Netherlands won a hard-fought victory against Albania, with van Nistelrooy scoring the winning goal in stoppage time. This win took the Dutch squad into second place in Group G, on par with Romania for points, but behind on goal differential. The Oranje were beaten 1–0 in Romania on 13 October 2007, but four days later, the Netherlands' 2–0 victory over Slovenia, while rivals Bulgaria could only draw in Albania, left the Dutch needing one win from their last two games, at home to Luxembourg and away to Belarus, to qualify for Euro 2008.
  The Netherlands played their first game in 2008 against Croatia in Split. The team, without Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie, Clarence Seedorf, Orlando Engelaar and Arjen Robben, won the match 3–0. The first goal was scored by John Heitinga on a header, while Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the second goal on an assist from Tim de Cler. The final goal came from Celtic striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The team used a new formation under Marco van Basten, scrapping the previously used 4–3–3 formation for a 4–2–3–1.
  The Dutch team was a participant in the "Group of Death," together with France, Italy, and Romania. They began Euro 2008 with a 3–0 win over World Cup Champion Italy in Bern on 9 June 2008. This was the Netherlands' first victory over Italy since 1978. In their second group match against France on 13 June 2008, the Netherlands won convincingly with a 4–1 score. The Dutch closed out an incredible group stage campaign with a 2–0 win over Romania. However, they lost in the quarter-final to former coach Guus Hiddink's Russia by 3–1, despite a late 86th-minute equalizer by Ruud van Nistelrooy.
  Under new coach Bert van Marwijk, the Dutch team went on to secure a 100 percent record in their World Cup 2010 qualification campaign, winning all eight games and becoming the first European team to qualify for the World Cup. The World Cup Draw in Cape Town on the 4 December 2009 saw the Dutch being placed alongside Denmark, Cameroon and Japan in Group E. On June 14 the Dutch won 2–0 against Denmark in their opener at the World Cup. On June 19 they then beat Japan 1–0 with a goal from Wesley Sneijder. They were the first team to qualify for the Round of 16 after a 2–1 victory from Denmark over Cameroon. In the first knockout round they faced Slovakia. At the end it was 2–1 victory after goals from Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. The conceded goal came in injury time from a penalty taken by Róbert Vittek.  They advanced to the semifinals with a 2–1 victory over the favoured Brazilians on July 2, 2010. Brazil, who had held a 1–0 lead at the half, was the favourite to win the cup, had never lost in 37 World Cup matches (35–0–2) in which they had held a halftime lead. The first Dutch goal was originally ruled an own goal by 
caption: Training in Germany
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