HT: Holland 0-1 Brazil - Early Robinho strike puts the Selecao ahead at the break

Robinho fired Brazil to within sight of the World Cup semi-finals as the South Americans threatened to inflict more misery upon Holland.

The striker, who had seen an earlier effort ruled out for offside, made no mistake from Felipe Melo's brilliant 10th-minute pass to give his side a lead they deserved at the break.

Holland were dealt a blow before kick-off when central defender Joris Mathijsen suffered an injury in the warm-up and was replaced by Andre Ooijer.

Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura was in the thick of the action straight away after Dani Alves unceremoniously dumped dangerman Arjen Robben to the ground with the game just minutes old.

Both sides were building up patiently with respective holding midfielders Nigel de Jong and Felipe Melo seeing plenty of the ball, although Brazil thought they had taken the lead with eight minutes gone.

Alves ran on to Luis Fabiano's through-ball and crossed for Robinho to fire home, although an offside flag had gone up long before the ball hit the back of the net.

However, Robinho was not to be denied and he did put the South Americans in front two minutes later when he collected Felipe Melo's defence-splitting pass to beat keeper Maarten Stekelenburg with ease.

Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar had a turn a Dirk Kuyt snapshot around the post seconds later, but the momentum was firmly with his side.

Central defender Juan lifted a shot over the bar from Alves' 25th-minute cross as Brazil looked more likely to add to their lead than concede.

They would have done just that had Stekelenburg not pulled off a fine 31st-minute save to deny Kaka after he, Luis Fabiano and Robinho had linked superbly down the left.