Holland...0 Sweden...0 (Holland win 5-4 on pens): It was a case of fifth time lucky for the Netherlands. After being knocked out of the last three European Championships as well as the France '98 World Cup in penalty shoot-outs, the Dutch finally laid their spot-kick bogey in Faro on Saturday night when defeating Sweden 5-4 in yet another dramatic epilogue to a quarter-final tie.

For the neutral, this was a 0-0 gridlock short on quality, flowing football. For the connoisseur, it was a fascinating clash of styles as the solid, organised Swedes almost quashed a less than overwhelming Netherlands. For the Dutch and Swedish nations, it was a hot night of intense, heartbreaking drama.

First-round form had suggested that, unless the Dutch showed significant improvement, this might be a tight affair. In the end, the Dutch improvement did not materialise with the Netherlands unable to totally eclipse Sweden in the manner that Italy had, at least for an hour of their first round 1-1 draw.

Speaking after the game, both Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and coach Dick Advocaat argued their team had deserved to win because, even if it had been a closely-contested affair, they had played more football, taken the game more to the Swedes.

From the Dutch viewpoint, that might be a fair assessment but the Swedes would argue that they twice hit the woodwork in extra-time, with Henrik Larsson firing onto the crossbar and Freddy Ljungberg hitting the post. In contrast, the Dutch will point to a van Nistelrooy extra-time goal disallowed because of a tight offside call.

The truth is there was little between two non-stratospheric teams. Indeed, unless the Dutch miraculously find a hitherto missing quality to their game, they seem destined to go out when they meet Portugal in the first semi-final at the Alvalade in Lisbon on Wednesday.

For all that van Nistelrooy is an outstanding centre forward, who makes a huge all-round contribution to the team cause, neither Andy van der Meyde on the right nor Arjen Robben on the left are good enough to lay on the sort of supply that would make the most of the Manchester United striker's devastating finishing ability.

Likewise, neither Clarence Seedorf nor Edgar Davids, substituted for Johnny Heitinga in the 61st minute, established any form of midfield dominance in a match where Anders Svensson, Tobias Linderoth and Ljungberg all gave as good as they got. The chances were evenly distributed throughout the 120 minutes of goalless play with Seedorf, Phillip Cocu and van Nistelrooy for Holland and Svensson, Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Sweden all prompting good saves from Andreas Isaksson and Edwin van der Saar, respectively.

The longer the match went, the more van der Meyde and Robben were being blocked by Swedish full backs Mikael Nilsson and Alexander Ostlund. The longer the match went, the less space fell to Larsson and Ibrahimovic against a cautious Dutch defence for which the idea of "total football" is but a distant, historic memory.

In short, despite much intriguing hustle and bustle, this was a match that had 0-0 written all over it from a long way out. So it proved and so we went to penalties where, perhaps crucially, the first side to miss was Sweden when a tired Ibrahimovic hoisted his shot over the bar.

That miss left the score at 3-2 in favour of Holland, with van Nistelrooy, Heitinga and Reiziger all having scored for the Dutch and Kim Kallstroem and Larsson scoring for the Swedes. Next up for Sweden was Ljungberg whose shot bounced off the bar onto the back of van der Saar and into the net.

When Cocu then hit the post to leave it at 3-3, one suspected the Dutch shoot-out curse had come back to haunt them. Not so however, for after substitutes Christian Wilhelmsson and Roy Makaay had both scored, it was Swedish captain Olof Mellberg who had the misfortune to see his shot parried by van der Saar. That left Robben to deliver the coup de grâce.

Swedish coach Lars Lagerback said: "Penalty shoot-outs are a question of centimetres. I don't know whether you call it luck or a lottery or what but it is really a very small margin and they can go one way or the other. It is always difficult in penalty shoot- outs but that's the way it is."