However, the 2-1 quarter-final victory over the five-time world champions on Friday was more than just the first major scalp the Dutch had claimed during their winning streak.
It also proved that the team in orange had learned lessons from the past.
"If you see the difference compared with the Portugal match four years back it is clear that this team has really developed," Dirk Kuyt told reporters.
"Then, everything ran out of control but now it proved that playing in big competitions, like most of us do, really paid off," he added.
During their qualification campaign they breezed through a group with Scotland, Norway, Iceland and Macedonia, while so far in the finals Bert van Marwijk's team have eased past Denmark, Japan, Cameroon and Slovakia.
"After our poor start in the first half we straightened our back, and then you need some luck like we had with the equaliser," said Kuyt.
"But after the equaliser we felt that something snapped with Brazil, while we just went on playing our own game.
"This team is mentally so strong that even the late change of Andre Ooijer instead of Joris Mathijsen made no difference," he added.
"It feels so unreal reaching a semi-final but it is also just the next match," he said. "So on Tuesday we just have to be ready to play the next match of our lives.
