An overwhelming tide of …er… orange greeted the Yugoslavs as they made their way onto the field. As if the home crowd wasn't intimidating enough, the Dutch players hounded down their opponents in packs, pressurizing them to relinquish possession. The perennial dark horses could be forgiven for thinking that they had stepped into a war zone again. But if anyone had the mental resolve to see themselves through this, it was the cynical Yugoslavs. Probably.

The East Europeans fired the opening salvo when Savo (pun unintended) Milosevic ran at Frank de Boer with the ball at his feet, juggling it from his left feet to the right before delightfully accelerating past the Dutch captain at the edge of the box. An astute lay-off found the lurking Mijatovic in the box, but the veteran's close-range shot was palmed away by a diving Van der Saar.

Almost immediately, the flow of the game shifted directly to Yugoslavia's end. Dennis Bergkamp capped a dangerous run with an exquisite swerving shot into the far corner, but Ivica Kralj flung himself across goal to deny the Dutch playmaker.

With both teams giving no quarter in their relentless pursuit for a prestigious place in the semi-finals, it needed a special goal to break the deadlock, and the Netherlands duly conjured some magic to take the lead. Bergkamp received the ball from a seemingly unthreatening area of the field, but he lofted a glorious diagonal through pass into the box, deceiving Mihajlovic with the sheer spin of his pass. Patrick Kluivert peeled away from the defender like the opportunist he was and slammed the ball in for a 24th minute lead.

The powerfully built striker struck again in the 38th minute from a carbon copy goal, this time from a wondrous Edgar Davids pass. Mihajlovic was taken out again and Kluivert gleefully tucked the ball away to double Holland's lead.

Yugoslavia were visibly wilting and fell further behind in the 51st minute when Kralj raced off his line to punch out a free kick, but the loose ball fell to Paul Bosvelt, and the converted right-back sold Stoikovic a neat dummy backheel before bursting down the right. From his subsequent low cross, Kluivert got in ahead of Govedarica to place an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net to complete his hat trick.

The Dutch were in cruise control by this point and went four goals up to the delight of their adoring fans in the 54th minute. Davids and Bergkamp combined to feed Zenden on the left, the winger nodded the ball down and benefited from a lucky deflection off a Yugoslav defender to lay off a short pass to Kluivert in the box, who scored with a weak but accurate volley.

Holland's four-goal hero was substituted on the hour but such was the embarrassment of riches at the tournament co-hosts' disposal that another player merely stepped up to continue where they had left off.

The goal of the game came in the 78th minute when Bergkamp made his way down the left, shielded the ball, and picked out Marc Overmars at the opposite edge of the box. The Arsenal winger flicked the ball up with his first touch and blasted a screaming volley with his second past Mihajlovic into the corner of the net for a spectacular goal.

The Dutch completed the whitewash in the final minute when Philip Cocu burst through from deep on the right. His low drive bounced off the foot of the near post but the rebound fell to the lurking Overmars, who duly tucked it away to make it 6-0.

Still, Yugoslavia had enough left in reserve to remind everyone of their pedigree by salvaging a goal back during injury time. Mijatovic allowed a long cross to bounce once before firing a sizzling volley from the edge of the box to over the clueless substitute keeper Westerveld. The spectacular strike crashed off the bar but an unmarked Milosevic coolly slotted the rebound in to confirm his status as his team's top goalscorer.

And so, Holland finally run rampant on their home patch, banishing the ghosts of Euro '96 firmly behind them. That should shut their critical press up for a day or two.

Match Rating: ***** Breathtaking Goal Blitz