FRANCE 98 – Match Summary n°54
Limping Edgar Davids hammered a dramatic injury time winner to give Holland a deserved 2-1 victory over Yugoslavia and a place in the World Cup quarter-finals on Monday. Holland play Argentina or England in Marseille on Saturday.
The man they call Pitbull was suffering from cramp when he smashed a 20-metre drive past Ivica Kralj in the Yugoslav goal to decide this second round clash two minutes into injury time. Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp had given the Dutch the lead after 38 minutes only for the Yugoslavs to equalise three minutes into the second half with a header from Slobodan Komljenovic.
Three minutes later Real Madrid striker Predrag Mijatovic missed a penalty for Yugoslavia, smacking his shot against the underside of the bar. “I was just doing my job,” said Juventus midfielder Davids. “I was cramping up so it was all or nothing-I knew I would have had to come off if it had gone to extra-time.”
Dutch coach Guus Hiddink said: “I was thinking ahead to extra-time and was going to take Davids off-thank God I didn’t.” Mijatovic, who socred the winning goal in the European Cup final last month for Real against Davids’ club Juventus, said the penalty miss was ” the worst moment of his career “.
” Fate was against me, “ he said. ” I knew (Dutch goalkeeper Edwin) van der sar had a big reach so I just blasted it. “ Holland kept faith with versatile midfielder Philip Cocu as Bergkamp’s strike partner, with AC Milan’s Patrick Kluivert confined to the bench.
Yugoslavia coach Slobodan Santrac opted for a defensive 5-4-1 formation with Predrag Mijatovic the lone attacker as the Slavs set their stall out to hit the Dutch on the break. The first shot of any consequence was 24 minutes in coming, Bergkamp letting fly from 20 metres after being fed by Ronald de Boer. Kralj shovelled the ball round the post for a corner.
Kralj then saved from Clarence Seedorf, recalled in place of Wim Jonk, and Cocu as Holland controlled possession. The breakthrough came seven minutes before the interval. Dutch captain Frank de Boer played the ball forward and Bergkamp shrugged off Zoran Mirkovic in the penalty area before firing a shot under Kralj to make it 1-0.
Yugoslavia offered virtually nothing in attack, bar a searing 30-metre free-kick from Sinisa Mihajlovic a minute after Bergkamp’s goal which Edwin van der Sar collected with relative ease. During half-time a brief scuffle in the Yugoslav end prompted swift intervention from security officials and order was quickly restored.
But within three minutes of the re-start it was Holland who were caught with their guard down as Yugoslavia grabbed a shock equaliser. Mijatovic won a free-kick on the left edge of the area and when Dragan Stojkovic floated the ball in defender Komljenovic, who scored the winner against the United States in the group stages, headed past van der Sar.
Incredibly the Yugoslavs should have been ahead three minutes later. Dutch defender Jaap Stam tugged Vladimir Jugovic’s shirt in the penalty area and the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Mijatovic, but his shot crashed off the underside of the bar and out to much Dutch relief.
It was the first penalty miss from open play at a World Cup since Gianluca Vialli’s failure for Italy against the United States in 1990. Immediately the ball was cleared down the other end and Bergkamp appeared to stamp on Mihajlovic as the Yugoslav tried to shepherd the ball off for a goal kick.
Several Yugoslavs charged over to berate the Dutchman as a hail of plastic bottles flew onto the pitch and Mirkovic received a yellow card for his trouble. ” I was lucky to stay on the pitch, “ admitted Bergkamp afterwards. Santrac then brought on Dejan Savicevic for Stojkovic, who had been suffering from a slight ankle injury prior to the match.
The lively Cocu then flung himself full length to connect with a Ronald de Boer cross after 68 minutes but his header flew past the post. Cocu then had the ball in the net with 12 minutes remaining only for the goal to be ruled out for a foul by Bergkamp.
Right on the 90 minutes Kralj plunged full length to stop a Seedorf piledriver and then an Overmars drive before finaly being beaten by Davids’ late blockbuster two minutes into injury time.
” We were unsettled when (team captain Dragan) Stojkovic had to go off and we couldn’t get back into it, “ admitted Yugoslav coach Slobodan Santrac. ” Then we let in that late goal-but that’s football. “