SOCCER / Netherlands 6 Scotland 0 (agg 6-1): Scotland's dream died a miserable death last night. Humbled and humiliated, all the Tartan Army's heady expectation after their first-leg victory sank without trace in a cauldron of oranje.

Holland, strutting where they had briefly stalled, have secured passage to Portugal.

The hordes who had come praying for a miracle instead endured a masterclass conducted by Wesley Sneijder and received most appreciably by Ruud van Nistelrooy. The striker's hat-trick amounted to half of Holland's goals.

So dismissive were the hosts by the end that Scotland's pre-match optimism, born of their magnificent display at Hampden Park last Saturday, smacked of the ridiculous.

This was a horrendously one-sided second leg, though perhaps the huge sense of anti-climax was to be expected.

For all that Saturday's victory had been deserved, it remained an unlikely success gleaned as much through good fortune as sheer endeavour. Though Lee Wilkie and Christian Dailly had smothered Dutch intent by conjuring up the games of their lives, Holland had still hit the woodwork amid a flurry of presentable opportunities and also been denied a clear-cut penalty which would have deflated last night's optimism.

"We can't let them come at us like they did for the whole of the second half at Hampden," admitted Scotland's manager Berti Vogts in the build-up. "But keep them quiet for 20 minutes and you never know."

In the event the Dutch supporters generated a din, but any nerves which might have been lurking to choke them eased before the quarter-hour. By the interval the game, and the tie, had been lost.

Holland wasted little time in whipping up a head of steam. Andy van der Meyde was bursting inside James McFadden to the byline only 11 minutes in, his cross nodded marginally wide by Rafael van der Vaart.

Scotland's luck did not hold. Sneijder accepted possession and turned exhilaratingly - if far too easily - away from Neil McCann, ambled forward unchallenged and lashed a low shot across Rab Douglas and into the corner of the net from outside the area.

The Arena erupted, relief obvious. This was a wonderfully fluid Holland line-up, revelling in the freedom their formation granted and liberated from the restrictive system favoured by Dick Advocaat in Glasgow.

It was also a changed selection - in Sneijder and Van der Vaart there was youthful energy to eclipse that of the visitors - and, faced by buzzing urgency so lacking in the first leg, Scotland simply could not cope.

The lunging tackles which had bit leather on Saturday crunched into limbs this time, with four Scots booked by half-time.

The fouls brought more than disciplinary problems. Jackie McNamara tripped Marc Overmars on the corner of the area and Sneijder, a 19-year-old excelling on only his third appearance, knocked over a free-kick which Wilkie and Steven Pressley were strangely reluctant to attack. Andre Ooijer, leaping unhindered, merely flicked home from point-blank range to put Holland ahead in the tie.

Sneijder had battered another breathless shot just wide before McNamara shipped another free-kick on the flank. If only for variety, so demoralised were the visitors, the Ajax midfielder this time found Van Nistelrooy, who had time to glance, bewildered, to check the lack of a marker before nodding in the third.

Scotland mustered nothing more than a pair of Darren Fletcher free-kicks, the second of which had Edwin van der Sar turning Wilkie's downward header aside.

The visitors desperately missed Dailly's snapping presence in front of their rearguard, the West Ham defender scowling and stunned in the dug-out with his one-match suspension gnawing at his soul. If he had played, Sneijder's threat might have been snuffed out; without him the Scots' back-line was horribly exposed.

Van Nistelrooy walked in the fourth just after the interval, exchanging passes with Van der Vaart and breezing beyond Wilkie. The hapless Dundee defender was left in a heap as the Manchester United striker lobbed over Douglas.

By the time the Scots had trudged back for the restart, the home fans were hollering Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

In truth, simplicity rather than mind-boggling skill had proved sufficient for the Dutch to run riot.

Sneijder's corner was then headed in at the near post by Frank de Boer, and two minutes later Van Nistelrooy sidefooted in the sixth.

Sneijder then curled a delicious shot on to the crossbar but there was to be no further punishment.

Crushing defeat will not deflect Vogts in his attempts to haul Scotland out of the doldrums, though this was a painful reminder of how far they still have to go.

NETHERLANDS: Van der Sar, Ooijer (De Boer 46), Reiziger, Bouma (Seedorf 67), Van der Meyde, Van der Vaart, Cocu, Sneijder, Davids, Overmars, van Nistelrooy (Kluivert 76). Subs Not Used: Makaay, Robben, Waterreus, Van Hooijdonk. Booked: van Nistelrooy, Davids. Goals: Sneijder 13, Ooijer 32, van Nistelrooy 36, 50, De Boer 64, van Nistelrooy 66.

SCOTLAND: Douglas, McNamara, Pressley, Wilkie, Naysmith (Ross 46), Fletcher, Ferguson, McCann (Miller 62), Rae, McFadden, Dickov (Crawford 45). Subs Not Used: Gould, Graham Alexander, Caldwell, Hutchison. Booked: Ferguson, Pressley, Dickov, Naysmith.

Referee: M Lubos (Slovakia).