Mario Gomez double sinks Holland

Gomez, who had scored the winner in Germany's opening win over Portugal, opened the scoring in the 24th minute and added his second in the 38th before Robin van Persie reduced the deficit 17 minutes from time.

Holland were suddenly dominant, with Van Persie having a penalty appeal waved away before Arjen Robben expressed his frustration at being substituted by exiting the pitch on the far side of the field in front of the Dutch fans.

Holland need to beat Portugal by two clear goals and hope Germany overcome Denmark to reach the quarter-finals while Germany must gain at least a point against the Danes to be certain of progress.

Germany will only be denied a spot in the last eight if they lose to Denmark and Portugal overcome the Netherlands. It would then come down to the head-to-heads between the teams to decide who goes through.

With Germany on six points and Denmark and Portugal on three after Portugal's 3-2 win over Denmark earlier in the day, it is worth noting that no team has reached the knockout phase of a European Championship finals after losing their opening two matches.

History is against the Dutch, but at least Van Persie's goal gives them hope of making it through against all the odds. They improved in the second period after being pressed back by a young German side for large swathes of the first period.