Sao Paulo: Substitutes Leroy Fer and MemphisDepay converted brilliant assists provided by Arjen Robben as The Netherlands beat Chile 2-0 to finish on top of group B in the World Cup on Monday.
Fer scored with his first touch of the match in the 77th minute when Robben curled one inside the box and he outjumped everyone to angle his header perfectly beating seasoned Chilean goalie Claudio Bravo as regular captain Robin van Persie applauded from the stands.
Young Memphis tapped home the second goal in the second minute of stoppage time as Robben sprinted down the left wing virtually unchallenged before keeping a nice low cross for the the 20-year-old to score.
Netherlands finished on top of group B with nine points while Chile also went into the round of 16 with six points.
Having scored 10 goals in the group league engagements, the Dutchmen also hold an envious record of scoring two or more goals in their last 13 international engagements.
It was a twin substitution from the Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal that worked wonderfully for the winners.
Norwich City’s Fer and PSV Eindhoven’s Memphis’s introduction in place of off-colour Wesley Sniejder and Jermaine Lens worked wonders for the ‘Oranje’ brigade.
Just before the strike, it was Memphis whose 25-yard pile driver was brilliantly fisted by Bravo for a corner. In the next move, the goalie wasn’t lucky though.
The Dutch certainly missed their in-form skipper Van Persie upfront but the match was played on even keel with both teams trying to measure each other’s midfield ammunitions.
There was a lot of pressure on Arjen Robben and he almost delivered a stunning goal in the 40th minute.
With a superb diagonal 60-metre sprint, Robben beat Charles Aranguiz and Gary Medel with sheer speed before his angular left-footed placement was just inches wide off the target.
