BRAZIL v NETHERLANDS:SOME THINGS are meant to be. Aren't they? the Netherlands against Brazil it just has the ring of a classic World Cup game. Sunshine. A perfect pitch. Those evocative jerseys. It's a movie with bankable stars.

A treat that does what it says on the tin. It’s the Netherlands. It’s Brazil. It’s all the World Cup memories thereof. Three previous meetings. Three epics. Honours even if you ignore a penalty shoot-out. Yep. Some things are meant to be.

Or maybe not. The Brazilians we see before us under the baton of the dark pragmatist Dunga are not the Brazil of 1970, that gorgeous symphony of strolling geniuses. Nor are they the Brazil of 1982. And Bert van Marwijk’s Dutch are neither the total football edition of 1974 or the all-fighting, all-squabbling editions of so many World Cups since then. Robin van Persie throws a tantrum? They all talk it through in a touchy-feely way.

So this afternoon’s clash may promise more than it can deliver despite the hype. The Dutch are coming off a record unbeaten run of 23 games but that sequence owes little to the intoxicating style that is the trademark of the Dutch Van Marwijk and Dunga would have a lot in common were they to sit down for an evening.

Dunga has noted at this tournament that “Holland have a style of play very similar to ours. They are a team with a South American style.” Running against the grain of tradition in both countries each manager likes to line out with a couple of defensive midfielders playing behind four attacking players. With slight variations within that style that’s seven players essentially who primary job is to defend and four whose task is to create.

For the Dutch Nigel de Jong is the principle bouncer in front of defence with Mark van Bommel beside him being slightly less defensively minded but marshalling those around him. The responsibility for getting goals lies with the playmaker Wesley Sneijder, the wide men, Arjen Robben and the selfless Dirk Kuyt and Arsenal’s slightly sulky and out-of-form Van Persie inside as the cutting blade.

The Netherlands’ problem today is how to get more out of Van Persie whose truncated season with Arsenal has been followed by insipid form here. Any sign of misfiring or a dropped head today and Klaas Jan Huntelaar will be warming-up early.

For the Brazilian’s much of the creative duty falls on the shoulders of Kaka whose World Cup experience has yet to really catch fire.

In the likely absence of Elano, Danny Alves will continue as the other creative midfield force. Dunga has gone with the experience of Fabiano in this World Cup because he fits into a system which has been built brick by brick.

Robinho playing the role of batman and supporting Fabiano from the flanks has been a pleasant surprise. Dunga will have noted quietly that Denmark put the Dutch under severe pressure for the first 45 minutes of their opening round game while Slovakia cut through the Dutch defence late in their game.

The full backs, Gregory van der Wiel and Giovanni van Bronckhurst, have looked a little out of their depth at times and Danny Mathijssen and John Heitinga at the centre of the Dutch defence will be tested more thoroughly today than at any time through the Netherlands’ 23-game run. The Brazilians will look to feed the ball wide and feed Fabiano on the burst through the middle.

The personnel news is that Elano remains ruled out with an ankle injury and Ramires misses today’s action through suspension. Felipe Melo is also a slight doubt. For the Dutch the resurrection of Robben against the Slovakians on Monday was a considerable bonus and means bench time for Rafael van der Vaart. Maybe it is just as well the Netherlands have escaped their past and are no longer committed to total football.

Chile’s uncompromising attacking system with twin wingers pushing up outside the centre forward and their tendency to push and lay the opposition high up the field were the nearest thing which this World Cup has seen to a total football side. Their weakness, however, played to Brazil’s strengths both in qualifying and here in Africa.

The Dutch will know the key today is to contain Brazil for as long as possible and hit them on the counter-attack. Portugal kept the Brazilians scoreless for 90 minutes in the opening round. And if De Jong can subdue Kaka it could be done again. Sneijder, the Dutch playmaker, hasn’t worked at the altitude he did for Inter Milan this season but with Kaka slightly subdued (despite his goals) this is the day when he needs to open up an opposition defence.

Distressingly for the Dutch this is as good a defence as Brazil have brought to a World Cup in a long time. Julio Cesar puts to an end for once and for all the canard about Brazil never having great goalkeepers, the full backs Maicon and Bastos have produced their own highlights reel so far. In the middle Lucio and Juan are two veterans of Italian football. For Juan to have been most people’s man of the match against Chile says much about Dunga’s style.

“We are a small country but a creative country” says Van Marwijk “and we have what Johan Cruyff always described as ‘a kind of arrogance’. We cannot let that arrogance become negative. It must be a positive arrogance. When Holland are good we are very, very good and then you can lose!”

A positive arrogance is one thing. A side with slightly more weaknesses than the opposition is another. In each of the three previous World Cup meetings between these sides the winner has gone on to contest the final. Uruguay or Ghana await the winners today in Port Elizabeth. In other words the final is in sight.

Brazil should have a little more confidence about getting there. Three goals to one is the bet.

STAT ATTACK: HEAD-TO-HEAD

Probable line-ups

Brazil(4-2-3-1): Julio Cesar; Maicon, Lucio, Juan, Michel Bastos; Gilberto Silva, Melo; Dani Alves, Kaka, Robinho; Luis Fabiano.

Netherlands(4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg; Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst; Van Bommel, De Jong; Robben, Sneijder, Kuyt; Van Persie.

The numbers game

Brazil

8 goals for and 2 against

58 fouls committed, 59 suffered

6 yellow cards and one second yellow for red (Kaka)

0 penalties given away

59 attacks (15 on left, 21 in the centre, 23 from the right) 4 times offside

57 per cent average ball possession (very good)

80 per cent pass completion rate (fantastic). (60 per centfor long, 23 per cent for crosses (poor), 85 per centfor medium, 79 per cent for short, 46 per cent forcorners)

Most shots on goal – Robinho with 10

Netherlands

7 goals for and 2 against

63 fouls committed, 65 suffered

8 yellow cards

2 penalties given away (v Cameroon and Slovakia)

45 attacks (17 on left, 19 in the centre, 9 from the right)

14 times offside

55 per cent average ball possession (good)

74 per cent pass completion rate (52 per cent for long,

31 per cent for crosses, 82 per cent for medium, 72 per cent for short, 25 per cent for corners)

Most shots on goal – Wesley Sneijder with 15