World Cup 2010 Group E: Netherlands 1-0 Japan

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Wesley Sneijder's second-half goal proved to be enough to give the Netherlands a hard-fought 1-0 win over Japan in Durban.

Sneijder broke the deadlock after 53 minutes when his powerful right-foot was diverted inside the left upright by Eiji Kawashima's upstretched arms.

Kawashima redeemed himself with two fine saves to deny Dutch substitute Ibrahim Afellay late on.

Japan had their best chance to level the score one minute from time but substitute Shinji Okazaki fired over from 12-yards without even testing Maarten Stekelenburg.

Lineups:

Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg; Gregory van der Wiel, John Heitinga, Joris Mathijsen, Giovanni van Bronckhorst; Nigel de Jong, Mark van Bommel; Dirk Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder (Ibrahim Afellay, 83), Rafael van der Vaart (Eljero Elia, 72); Robin van Persie (Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, 88)

Japan: Eiji Kawashima; Yūichi Komano, Yuji Nakazawa, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuto Nagatomo; Yuki Abe; Makoto Hasebe (Shinji Okazaki, 77), Daisuke Matsui (Shunsuke Nakamura, 64), Yasuhito Endō, Yoshito Ōkubo (Keiji Tamada, 77); Keisuke Honda

Statistics:
NetherlandsJapan
1Goals0
5Shots on target3
2Shots off target7
4Corners5
12Fouls11
2Offsides1
1Yellow Cards0
0Red Cards0
61Ball possession (%)39


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