Star player:
Wesley Sneijder

Previous appearances:
1938 (first round), 1974 (runners-up), 1978 (runners-up), 1990 (second round), 1994 (quarter-finals), 1998 (fourth place), 2006 (second round)

How they qualified
UEFA
Macedonia (a)       1-2
Iceland (h)           2-0
Norway (a)           0-1
Scotland (h)         3-0
Macedonia (h)      4-0
Iceland (a)           1-2
Norway (h)          2-0
Scotland (a)         0-1

Chances:
The Oranje made light work of qualification and some brilliant displays at Euro 2008 - including a comprehensive 3-0 win over world champions Italy - underlined once again that they can beat anyone on their day. The question, as ever, is consistency. A last-eight place would surely be the minimum goal.

Strange but true
Dutch star Dennis Bergkamp got such a fright during a turbulent plane ride to the 1994 tournament in the United States that he didn’t fly for the rest of his playing career. He missed many distant Champions League ties during his Arsennal days because of his pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying).