The Netherlands could be peaking at just the right time! 🇳🇱✨
The Dutch squad clinched their first Euros quarterfinals spot in 16 years with a thrilling 3-0 victory over Romania on Tuesday. Cody Gakpo kicked things off by breaking the deadlock in the 20th minute, and substitute Donyell Malen sealed the deal with two late goals. 🎯🎯
\"I think the whole performance today was outstanding, and that's what we need to have a chance to continue in this tournament,\" coach Ronald Koeman said. \"This is the level. If you go down in that level, then we don't reach the final.\"
Despite missing a flurry of earlier chances to widen the gap—and with captain Virgil van Dijk hitting the woodwork—the team showed a massive improvement from their group stage stumble, which ended in a 3-2 loss to Austria. 🥅😬
\"Sometimes it's difficult to explain why you play bad,\" Koeman reflected. \"Even today, the start was difficult. They were really aggressive. But finally we found our ball position. What we created was good football… Maybe one critical point was that it took too long to score the second one… It's difficult to explain why one time you play badly and the next time you are really sharp from the beginning.\"
For Romania and their passionate sea of yellow-clad fans, it was still a night to remember. 🇷🇴💛 Their supporters lit up Euro 2024 with their energy, making only their second appearance in the knockout stages, and they did so as group winners!
The bouncing yellow wall at one end of the stadium gave the team a send-off to remember—singing and applauding long after the final whistle—as if they had won the match. 🎶👏
\"Today we ended a great story, which we started two years ago. We continued that story here in Germany along with the fans of the national team,\" Romania coach Edward Iordanescu said. \"The team gave a great effort, but there is some sadness. We wanted more, but we gave our all. Thank you to my lads, the supporters, and Romanians everywhere in the world who supported us.\"
Reference(s):
Improved Netherlands beat Romania 3-0 to reach Euro 2024 quarterfinals
cgtn.com
