Anything but a victory over Denmark would be a minor disaster for the Netherlands tomorrow.

SPANISH captain Iker Casillas lifted the World Cup to the African night sky as all of Spain celebrated the first World Cup triumph in their history.

Howard Webb set a new World Cup final record after handing out 14 yellow cards and one red to Spain and Holland in a tempestuous climax to this tournament.

Holland coach Bert van Marwijk was today going back to the drawing board as he prepared his team for their World Cup semi-final clash with Uruguay.

Orlando Engelaar was one of four players to miss out as Holland boss Bert van Marwijk made the final cut to his 23-man World Cup squad today.

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s international career appears to be over after the veteran striker missed out on Bert van Marwijk’s 30-man preliminary World Cup squad today.

Celtic 0 Hamburg 0

Scotland 0 Holland 1

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes hailed Shay Given’s heroics which has handed the Blues hope of turning around their UEFA Cup quarter-final in the second leg at Eastlands next week.

Hamburg 3 Manchester City 1

Liverpool duo Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel have been called up the Holland’s squad ahead of the resumption of their World Cup qualification campaign later this month.

Hamburg 3 Aston Villa 1

Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has made a surprise return to the Holland squad.

A late goal from Bastian Schweinsteiger enabled Bayern Munich to stretch their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to six points with a 2-1 win at Bochum.

Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart admits the forthcoming season could be his last with the club.

Holland coach Marco van Basten has named Wilfred Bouma and Evander Sno among several Premiership players in a provisional 27-man squad for two upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

STAND-IN strikers Kevin Kuranyi and Mario Gomez led Germany to a 3-1 win over Switzerland in a friendly international last night, but there was bad news for Chelsea as Michael Ballack limped off injured a minute before the break.

Arsenal got their Champions League campaign back on course with victory over Hamburg at the Emirates Stadium to top Group G last night.

Arsenal 3 Hamburg 1

Hamburg 0 Arsenal 2

OH dear.

A virtuoso performance by Arjen Robben paved the way for victory in Holland’s opening encounter of the World Cup, against Serbia and Montenegro.

The Dutch connection at Tottenham could be enough for the north London club to clinch the signing of defender Ron Vlaar.

Newcastle continued their march towards the UEFA Cup quarter-finals as Olympiacos collapsed in Greece, but Middlesborough's cup dreams hang on a thread tonight after a 3-2 defeat to Sporting Lisbon.

AZ Alkmaar continued their tremendous form this season by recording a superb 3-1 win over Ukrainian league leaders Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of their UEFA Cup Round-of-16 clash.

Substitute Miroslav Radovic was the hero for 10-man Partizan Belgrade as his late strike sealed a 1-0 win on the day and progression to the last 16 of the UEFA Cup at the expense of Dnipro.

The Dutch connection at Tottenham could be enough for the north London club to clinch the signing of defender Ron Vlaar.