Brazil's coach Dunga stepped down immediately after his nation's hopes of a sixth World Cup were shattered by the Netherlands.

The Oranje came from behind to claim a famous 2-1 win in an enthralling quarter-final on Friday.

An own goal by Felipe Melo, who was later sent off, and a Wesley Sneijder header enabled the Dutch to overturn Robinho's early opener and completely turn around a match that, at half-time, the five-times champions appeared destined to win comfortably.

The defeat means Brazil's campaign has ended at the quarter-final stage for the second successive World Cup while the Netherlands can look forward to a semi-final against Ghana or Uruguay having avenged their 1994 and 1998 last-eight defeats by the Brazilians.

"We knew when I started that I would be here for four years," said Dunga, confirming he would not continue in a job he began at the conclusion of the 2006 campaign.

"It's sad, it's difficult, nobody prepares to lose."

He admitted to being left shell-shocked by the way his side threw away a winning position.

"We are all extremely saddened, we did not expect this," he said. "We knew it would be a delicate, difficult game. In the first half we played better than in the second but we were not able to maintain the same rhythm.

"We could not maintain the same level of concentration. Any World Cup match is 90 minutes and it is the small details that count."

Brazil's 1994 World Cup-winning captain also admitted his time at the helm of the national side was all but over.

"I was contracted for four years and we knew that from the start," he said.

"During the last four years I have been very happy to coach this Brazilian team and if you look at the players faces you would understand how they feel.

"I am very proud of these players and the dignified way they represented the country."

Dunga rejected a suggestion that he had failed to prepare his players for the possibility that they might fall behind in a match, but he acknowledged that a degree of anxiety had crept into their play once the momentum in the match swung against them.

"We never prepare a team to lose, you always prepare a team to win," he said. "This nervousness surfaced because we were losing, passes started to go astray, balls were miscontrolled.

"But you cannot question the commitment of these players to the national team.

"If you look at history it is very infrequent for a team to play for 50 days in a row without anyone complaining. We were together for 52 days and there was no controversy."

For Sneijder, the man of the match, it was his third goal of the finals.

"This was my first header. I don't think it will happen again, but it was great. The ball slipped on my bald head and went into the net."

The Dutch cause had not been helped by losing centreback Joris Mathijsen to a knee injury minutes before kick-off.

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