DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) – Slovakia hope to produce a repeat performance of their shock group victory over Italy when they clash with the Netherlands in a World Cup round of 16 match here today.

The unfancied Slovaks stunned the defending champions 3-2 to finish as group runners-up and secure a second-round showdown with the Dutch, finalists in 1974 and 1978.

Slovak coach Vladimir Weiss said the match against the Dutch was a “career-topping game for both me as coach and all the players”.

“What we’ve learnt since we started the World Cup is that everything’s possible, but that’s an old cliche,” said Weiss, who played for the then-Czechoslovakia in the 1990 World Cup and went on to add 12 Slovak caps to his 19 Czechoslovakian appearances.

“What we have shown is that we can play football against very strong teams. Of course we came here to fight for something sensational for us.

“We hope it’ll be a beautiful game for us tomorrow. If we want to play well against the Netherlands, we’ll have to repeat our performance against Italy, for whom we have big respect.”

Weiss, who hinted he might recall his son Vladimir Jr to the starting line-up, said that the Dutch would pose very different problems compared to the Italians, who played a relatively open game in search of goals.

After failing to find the net in nine qualifying games, Slovak striker Robert Vittek now finds himself among the big boys of the world’s goalscorers.

“I’m very happy to be among the top scorers especially after all the criticism I got, but I’m not thinking too much about it,” said Vittek, who plays for Turkish club Ankaragucu.

“It’s a dream to be playing at the World Cup, in a stadium like the one in Durban against opponents like the Netherlands.

“For us it is a fantastic, new experience. We’re not thinking about the result, we’re just focusing on the match, as we did against Italy.”

Meanwhile, Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk has told his team to buckle down in their match against a Slovakian side he said lacked any “stars”.

Two-time finalists the Netherlands joined Argentina as just two sides who negotiated their group phase with three victories, but van Marwijk said complacency had crept in during their final match against Cameroon.

Leading 1-0 in that game, the Dutch eased off to allow the African side an equaliser before substitute Klaas-Jan Huntelaar made it safe at 2-1.

“After the Cameroon match, I spoke to the squad. We often have that period of sloppiness after we take the lead. I said we can’t afford that,” said van Marwijk.

“If you look at what we’ve done so far, we’ve given a stable impression in the first two matches. We controlled the matches but could have done better.

“The third game was less good, and we could have just lost it.”

Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst hinted that the riot act had been read.

“The second half against Cameroon was not good,” the Feyenoord defender said. “It’s been made clear that should we suffer a lapse like that again, we might have to go home.”