With the 3:0 victory in the round of 16 against Romania, the Netherlands is back on track at the European Championship. "We've learned our lessons," says Denzel Dumfries after the reaction to the mixed group stage.
The wind can change that quickly. The 2:3 against Austria and the meagre 3rd place in the group with France and Austria earned the Dutch national team harsh criticism at home, while the 3:0 against Romania suddenly turned them into the "dominant Oranje" ("De Telegraaf").
In fact, after slight teething troubles against Romania, the Elftal were on top of their game. "We showed a good reaction. That was a step in the right direction," said match-winner Cody Gakpo. Denzel Dumfries said: "We've learned our lessons."
"Chances without end"
It had paid off that they had "talked a lot about aggression and intensity" in the last few days and about "how we should behave when defending", said Gakpo. Dumfries emphasized that they could be "very satisfied". "We had chances without end, fought to the end and could have put the lid on it earlier. I'm proud of the team." Pressing and positional play were better than recently and Malen, Depay and Gakpo were "very, very good", said Dumfries. "We showed that we are always good for a goal."
Coach Ronald Koeman, who was criticized by the dissatisfied fans, was also positive: "We did a lot of things well and sent out a strong signal. The team realized that the last game was really bad in every respect." With the exception of the first ten minutes, his team played well throughout the game. "It took us a long time to score the second goal. But I was never worried that Romania would equalize because we defended so well."
SDA
