PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa — The Netherlands came from behind to stun five-time champion Brazil 2-1 Friday and become the first semifinalist of the World Cup.

Wesley Sneijder scored the winner in the 68th minute with a header following a corner kick.

"It just slipped through from my bald head and it was a great feeling," Sneijder said.

It was the Netherlands' first win over Brazil since the 1974 World Cup, when Johan Cruyff was the team's star and "total football" reigned.

"It was an amazing game. I think we showed the whole world how we can play," Sneijder said. "Finally we won, we beat Brazil."

Robinho had given Brazil the lead in the 10th, but the Netherlands equalized in the 53rd with an own goal from Felipe Melo.

"We had two players going for the same ball and what happened happened," Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar said of the equalizer, his eyes filled with tears.

It was a match of sharp contrasts for Felipe Melo, who set up the opening goal with a brilliant through pass but then was shown a direct red card in the 73rd for stamping on Netherlands winger Arjen Robben, leaving Brazil with 10 men.

"I'm devastated. It was hard to see the players crying back there," Felipe Melo said after emerging from the changing room. "I have to apologize to the Brazilian fans. I came here thinking about giving Brazil the title, but I'm a human being. Everybody can make mistakes."

The Netherlands reached the semifinals for the first time since losing to Brazil on penalties at the 1998 World Cup in France and will next face either Uruguay or Ghana.

Having won all five of their matches so far, the Netherlands extended its team-record unbeaten streak to 24 games, stretching back to a September 2008 loss to Australia.

At the final whistle, the Dutch players jumped on each other near midfield and lingered to savor the moment.

The majority of the fans inside the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium were clad in Brazilian yellow, although many of them were wearing South Africa jerseys of the same color. Long after the match ended, the only fans remaining were orange-shirted Netherlands supporters, waving their country's red-white-and-blue flags and chanting "Oranje."

The Netherlands reached consecutive World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978 but lost both — to Germany and Argentina, respectively — and its only major tournament victory was the 1988 European Championship.

The Dutch will be favored against either Uruguay or Ghana in the semifinals.

Brazil also lost in the quarterfinals four years ago, falling to France 1-0. Former Brazil captain Dunga was hired to coach the team after that loss despite no previous managerial experience and his future is certain to come into question now.

"We didn't expect this," Dunga said. "We know that any World Cup match is about 90 minutes. In the first half we were able to play better and we weren't able to maintain that rhythm in the second half."

Dunga immediately accepted blame for the loss.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, I am the coach of the Brazilian team," he said. "I have the greatest responsibility."

On a warm and pleasant afternoon before a sellout crowd of 42,286, Brazil dominated the first 45 minutes, then fell apart.

Robinho's goal started with a long pass from Felipe Melo through the heart of the Netherlands defense, setting up an easy score for the Santos striker.

Two minutes before he scored, Robinho had a goal waved off for a close offside call on Brazil's first chance. Buzzing like a bee back and forth between the left wing and the center of Brazil's attack, Robinho started another effort in the 31st that nearly became the most spectacular goal of the tournament.

Robinho dribbled through three defenders up the left flank then gave the ball to Luis Fabiano, who flicked it back with his heel to Kaka. The playmaker then sent a searing shot to the top right corner of the goal, but Netherlands goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg timed his leap perfectly to deflect the ball away with one hand.

The one-goal lead wasn't enough, though, and Brazil began to unravel when Felipe Melo headed the ball into his own net in a mixup with Julio Cesar following a cross from Sneijder, who also led Inter Milan to the Champions League title in May.

"We could have lost it in the first 15 minutes," Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said. "At halftime, I made it very clear to the players. I told them time and time again, 'You have to play your own game. You have to have patience against Brazil.' When the (own goal) goal was scored, we just got better and better."

Sneijder's goal followed a corner kick from Robben. Dirk Kuyt flicked the ball on with a header by the near post and Sneijder found the target from the center of the area.

Five minutes later, Felipe Melo walked off the field with his head hung low.

"I think if he looked carefully, he would be ashamed, ashamed for Brazilian football," Van Marwijk said of Felipe Melo, who missed Brazil's 3-0 victory over Chile but was rushed back into the lineup since fellow midfielders Elano and Ramires both sat out — Elano with a right ankle injury and Ramires due to yellow cards.

Brazil had one final chance in the 89th but a free kick from Daniel Alves smacked into a thick Dutch wall.

"The first half was really difficult for us. We were 1-0 behind, a great save by our goalkeeper on Kaka kept us there," Sneijder said. "At halftime we said to each other that we had to improve things and put more pressure on the Brazilian defense. For 45 minutes we went full throttle and we were rewarded."

Uruguay 1, Ghana 1

Uruguay wins, 4-2 on penalty kicks

Nothing, it seemed, would go in for Ghana.

Not the shot kicked away at the goal line. Not the block ruled a handball an instant later as extra time ticked to a close. Not the subsequent penalty kick that sure-footed Asamoah Gyan sent bouncing straight up off the crossbar.

And not two more tries in the shootout as Uruguay, suddenly still alive, made four kicks and won the match 4-2 Friday night after a 1-1 draw. The South Americans were headed to the World Cup semifinals for the first time in 40 years.

The Ghanaians were headed home in tears.

"It's hard luck. You know, we had (an) opportunity to win this game," Gyan said, "but unfortunately, that is football for you."

With time running out, a scramble in front of the Uruguay net caught goalkeeper Fernando Muslera out of position. A shot by Ghana was kicked away on the goal line by Luis Suarez. Then, Dominic Adiyiah's header was cleared off the goal line by Suarez — using his arm. That drew an immediate red card for the striker, who will miss the semifinal, and sent Gyan to the penalty spot.

As Gyan calmly placed the ball in front of him in the final seconds of extra time, all he needed to do was send it past Muslera — and that would have sent the Black Stars into the semifinals, an African first at the World Cup.

Child's play for Gyan, who twice in the tournament had scored on a penalty kick. He stared down Muslera, then stroked the ball solidly.

Just as solidly, it hit the crossbar. Gyan stumbled away holding his head.

Victories — and defeats — don't come any tougher than this.

"To be among the four best (teams) in the world, there are no words for that," Uruguay star striker Diego Forlan said. "We felt we were going to faint with each penalty."

Rather than faint, Uruguay pounced on an almost unimaginable second chance.

The fans, except for the small pockets of blue-clad Uruguay supporters in the crowd of 84,017, booed Forlan before he calmly sent the first kick of the shootout past Richard Kingson.

And who would step up first for Ghana but Gyan — and he also struck the ball perfectly. Had he done so minutes earlier, Ghana and all of Africa would be celebrating an historic achievement.

Instead, the shootout moved to 3-2 for Uruguay and Muslera guessed correctly, diving left for an easy save on John Mensah. After Maximiliano Pereira's kick skied over the net for Uruguay, the vuvuzelas again were at their loudest.

But Muslera also stopped Adiyiah, and Sebastian Abreu won it with a soft but accurate placement as Kingson dived right.

"It's a way of kicking (penalties). I believe in it, and the team has given me confidence to believe it's the right way," Abreu said.

As his teammates sprinted to smother him in an ecstatic scrum, several Ghanaians slumped to the field.

And Soccer City fell silent again.