Without a point in the pool stage, Pakistan's spirited display of hockey - led by Muhammad Irfan's brace in the second half - stunned title favourites and 2012 Olympic silver-medallists 4-2 in the first quarter-final of the FIH Men's Champions Trophy here on Thursday.
The other incentive of that unexpected result is a possible Indo-Pak semi-final, should the hosts beat Belgium in the day's last knockout fixture.
No one gave the three-time champions a chance in hell or heaven to beat the Dutch who topped Pool B and were unbeaten so far in the tournament. But Pakistan proved once again how dangerously they can blow hot and cold.
The game was locked 2-2 going into the last 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. That's when Irfan's two penalty-corner strikes in two minutes (51st and 52nd) took the game away from the Netherlands as the Dutchmen held their heads in hand after the final whistle.
The game began with the Orange shirts dominating proceedings as the action was restricted to the Pakistan half, and it did result in a field goal in the 6th minute off Jeroen Hertzberger's stick.
It took Pakistan a while to come back in the game, which they did through Muhammad Bhutta's strike in the 16th minute and then took the lead in the final minute before half-time as skipper Muhammad Imran made his presence felt with a stupendous field effort.
The Dutch outfit regrouped upon their return to the field and once again locked the game at 2-2 when Constantinjn Janker sounded the board.
Pakistan lifted their game from that point on and launched a series of counter-attacks that brought about two penalty corners, which were converted by Irfan to slam the door on Netherlands, who will now play in the 5th-8th place playoffs while Pakistanis await their opponents in the semis, which will be either India or Belgium.
"We were pretty match confident of beating the Netherlands as we were preparing for this match. The tournament actually started today as results of the pool stage didn't matter," Pakistan coach Sheikh Shahnaz said. "So we were not bothered about our three straight losses in Pool A."
"I told my boys that India beat Netherlands, so there's no reason why we couldn't do that since we had beaten this Indian team in the league fixture at the Asian Games. The loss in the final at Incheon didn't count as the match was decided on penalties," he added.
The semifinals will be played on Dec 13.
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