Brazil, the greatest challenge so far for the Netherlands (Feature)

By Veronica Sardon Jun 29, 2010, 9:25 GMT

Durban - The Netherlands may not be playing their trademark beautiful football, but they have won all four of their matches so far in South Africa.

They will have to raise their level of play in the quarter-finals, however, when they clash with the team being touted as favourite to with the World Cup - none less than five-time champions Brazil.

'Hopefully we'll have our best game when it's needed,' Netherlands star Arjen Robben said Monday, after scoring in his side's 2-1 win over Slovakia in the Round of 16.

Top form will doubtless come in handy against Brazil in Port Elizabeth.

'It's a big challenge to be in the quarter-finals, and against Brazil we're probably the underdogs for the first time in this tournament,' Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk admitted.

Mark van Bommel agreed, and said he liked the idea of not having to deal with the added pressure of being favourites. 'I'm glad,' he said, 'Brazil are the favourites.'

Van Marwijk described Brazil as a consistent and confident team.

'They have a good team, and always when there's a World Cup they're one of the favourites,' Netherlands keeper Maarten Stekelenburg said.

Midfielder Rafael van der Vaart said the South American giants like to play attacking football, just like the Netherlands, but he showed no fear ahead of the high-profile clash.

'We wanted to play against Brazil,' he stressed.

The Netherlands have a less-than-motivating record against the 'verdeamarela.' Brazil eliminated the Oranje in the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup, which the South Americans then went on to win.

In 1998 they met a similar fate, losing in the semi-finals to Brazil in a penalty shootout.

The Netherlands insist on efficiency to lay a claim to the World Cup title, which conspicuously escaped them in the days when they played flowing football.

'In the end it's about winning and going through to the next round,' Robben said.

It remains to be seen whether they are a match for Brazil, who so far have appeared to have several gears too many for most of their rivals: only Portugal managed to prevent them from scoring, but that was a match in which Brazil lacked lethal attacking weapons like the suspended Kaka, the injured Elano and Robinho, who stayed on the bench.

In order to defeat Brazil's first-choice team Friday, the Netherlands will need their injury-prone star winger Robben at his best, but more generally their whole team will need to play a perfect match.

But the Oranje feel up to the challenge: they have big plans in South Africa.

'We have a dream, which is to be the champions, and we're three games away,' captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst said.