Robin van Persie should be fit to face Uruguay in their semi-final clash this week. Hospital scans on the elbow he injured against Brazil revealed no serious damage and the Arsenal man is expected to play as is Joris Mathijsen whose knee injury sustained in the pre-match warm up is not as bad a first feared.

 

Coach Bert van Marwijk has been delighted with the unity shown by the squad. After topping their group and seeing off the might of Brazil, van Marwijk is keen to stress that nothing has been achieved yet. “We have been down this road before in the past with other Dutch teams and the Dutch people have been let down time and again. The target, to be crowned champions, is not yet achieved.”

The Netherlands are preparing for Uruguay in the same way that they have approached every other match so far in World Cup 2010. “Uruguay are a team of fighters. We must certainly not underestimate them, otherwise things will go wrong for us.”