Jill Roord scored her fourth goal of the tournament as the Netherlands marched into the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup with a 2-0 win over South Africa at Sydney Football Stadium.
Roord’s header gave her side an early lead and Lineth Beerensteyn added the second goal courtesy of a goalkeeper error in the second half to secure the Dutch a date with Spain in Wellington on Friday.
The 54th-ranked African champions never gave up the fight in their first appearance in the World Cup knockout stage and were always a threat on the break through striker Thembi Kgatlana.
Dutch goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar was equal to everything Banyana Banyana fired at her, however, and the 2019 finalists progressed to the last eight for the second successive tournament.
Japan are also through to the last-16 and will face the winner of the heavyweight clash between defending champions USA and Sweden. The USA are looking vulnerable after scraping through Group E, and the defending champions going out at this stage would leave the tournament wide open.
Follow live updates from Netherlands vs South Africa as the World Cup last-16 continues.