Port Elizabeth - Fans lined up for three hours at a suburban shopping mall in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday to buy the most sought-after ticket in town: Entry to Friday's blockbuster World Cup quarter-final between favourites Brazil and the Netherlands.Officials are expecting the first-ever sellout at the 42 286-seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after empty seats at all six previous matches at the new stadium.Tickets went on sale on Tuesday in four categories from R525 to R2 100.Deenish Nadill of Port Elizabeth was the first in line, waiting outside the mall doors since early morning.He says he's become a fan of the Dutch "because I like their style of football".The high-profile teams, one a five-time champion and the other a two-time runner-up, advanced to the quarterfinals on Monday when Brazil defeated Chile 3-0 and the Dutch beat Slovakia 2-1.Stadium venue manager Archie Charalambous said there were several thousand tickets left by midmorning but that he expected the rest to be "snapped up" by the end of the day.The ticket office had extra staff on duty for the expected rush."Let's face it, this quarter-final is like a final," Charalambous said.'Plenty of support'Nadia Botha and her partner, Dutch exchange student Dominique Asselman, were second in the queue."I'm South African but I'll be supporting the Dutch," Botha said. "They will have plenty of support here from a local Dutch organisation that brings in students from the Netherlands."Guga Ferreira, a 24-year-old from Brazil who lives in Port Elizabeth, was further back in the line but hoped to get good tickets."I actually wasn't clued up on which teams could come here," Ferreira said. "I only saw it about two days ago and I said 'wow, I've got to come and get some tickets'."The stadium's biggest World Cup crowd thus far was 38 295 for Serbia's win over Germany in a group game. There were 12 000 empty seats for Uruguay's 2-1 second-round win over South Korea.
Follow Sport24 on Twitter and Facebook
Your Name
* Your Email
* Recipient's name
* Recipient's email
Your message
If you want to email this page to more than one person, just put a semicolon ";" between the email addresses. * = Compulsory
Yes - it's just back to daily life now
Sort of - I will feel better each passing day
No - I miss the vibe and bustle so much it hurts
Don't care - didn't get into it anyway
View Results | Vote Archive
36% Yes - it's just back to daily life now
20% Sort of - I will feel better each passing day
33% No - I miss the vibe and bustle so much it hurts
11% Don't care - didn't get into it anyway
Vote Archive
Twitter Follow Sport24 on Twitter
Newsletters Sign up for Sport24's Morning Glory newsletter
Blogs Yes your opinion counts. Get it out there
WIN Enter and win with Sport24!
Mobile Sport24 on your mobile phone - WAP, alerts, downloads, services
BlackBerry Stay in the loop on your BlackBerry
iPhone Latest Sport24 news on your iPhone
Facebook "Like" Sport24's Facebook page
TV schedule Plan your couch time with our searchable sport TV guide
RSS Feeds Sport news delivered really simply.