MATCH 16 REPORT : ŠMICER SEALS CZECH PROGRESS

Group winners
The Czechs advance to the quarter-finals as winners of Group D, but the Netherlands must now beat Latvia and hope that the Czechs do them a favour against Germany in their last game.

Koller chance
The Czech Republic had the better of the early exchanges, Jan Koller volleying an excellent chance over from a clever chip by Tomáš Rosický in the very first minute. Then Marek Jankulovski burst in between Jaap Stam and Giovanni van Bronckhorst but misfired from 15 metres.

Bouma boost
So it was against the run of what little play there had been when the Netherlands took a fourth-minute lead. Pavel Nedved brought down Heitinga as the Dutch right-back advanced, Arjen Robben's free-kick was delicately flighted to the far post where Bouma was inexplicably unmarked and the PSV Eindhoven defender made no mistake with the header.

Seedorf shots
Clarence Seedorf twice went close to doubling the lead, grazing the outside of the post from a free-kick and shooting wide after good work by Edgar Davids and Ruud van Nistelrooij. Petr Cech also needed to be alert to gather Robben's well-struck effort.

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