These Netherlands can win the Euro! The main problem remains to be solved.
Anatoly Romanov July 2, 2024, 21:17 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Become ruthless. The Romanians scored three goals in the last 16 of the European Championship, but they could have done much more.
Second defeat in the Euro 2024 playoffs! The Dutch national team defeated Romania and will now face the winner of the Austria-Türkiye pairing in the quarter-finals. However, for the Dutch the match was not as easy as the result seems.
Eduard Yordenescu’s team started the match with surprising intensity. The Romanians were not going to play the “number two” but they got involved in the fight for the initiative. And at the beginning they won it. The yellows pressed the opponent very aggressively and the Netherlands played the ball riskily in their own half of the field under so much pressure. At the beginning of the match, the young goalkeeper Verbruggen almost killed the match. In general, in the first 10-15 minutes of the playoffs, Koeman’s team felt uncomfortable.
Romania – Netherlands – 0:3
Photo: Fake Images
But then everything fell into place: the favourites began to dominate. The Romanians, running “like five hundred”, suffocated. The Netherlands made a great run and won a series of corner kicks. However, in the 20th minute, when the Dutch opened the scoring, the teams were still statistically equal in terms of the number of accurate passes in the opponent’s third. Koeman’s goal came thanks to an excellent opening by Javi Simons between the lines. He received a timely pass from deep and passed the ball to Gakpo. The Liverpool striker did what he does well. He moved to the centre under a blow from the right. Romanian right-back Raciu (the owner of blue hair is not an ideal of reliability in his area, despite all his activity), who missed the one-on-one episode, and goalkeeper Nita, acted unsuccessfully. She missed the nearest corner.
With the score at 1:0, the Netherlands continued to press and earned set pieces, 10 corners before the break. The Romanians, among other things, were inferior in martial arts. In addition, they lost left-back Mogos due to injury, who, in turn, made his debut at Euro 2024, replacing the disqualified Banca. Interestingly, the Dutch also had winger Bergwijn on the right flank of the attack, who had never played in the European Championship before. Perhaps, only with the expectation of using the weak link in the enemy’s defense. Although the Dutch maintained a three-man defense during possession, right-back Dumfries rose high and Bergwijn moved centrally and assisted Depay as a striker.
At the end of the first half, the Netherlands could have made this game a reality if Simons had taken advantage of the great opportunity. Rakovitsan, who had just come on to replace Mogos, panicked under the pressure and gave the ball to the Dutch in their own area. Fortunately for the Romanians, Xavi was confused about the decisions.
Romania – Netherlands – 0:3
Photo: Fake Images
After the break, the Dutch also had the ball and the territory. If the Romanians opened up, they struggled because they did not control the quick retaliations of Koeman’s team. These teams have different potential in terms of speed. Reynders made an impressive pass down the middle across the middle of the field – it hit Rakovitsan himself on the hand. But there was no penalty, as the defender managed to hold his hand. Then Dumfries asked for a penalty and the referee said: “I don’t think so.” Numerous corner kicks from the Netherlands finally began to bear fruit. Van Dijk hit the post with a header and Gakpo scored just before the hour. But his goal was rightly disallowed for offside.
The Dutch team created moments after moments. But they did not implement so many that sooner or later the well-known rule of football should have worked. “You will be scored on!” – Koeman probably thought when the fresh-faced Verman failed to score from a few meters. However, the Romanians did not even have the chance! When the Dutch scored the second goal in the 83rd minute, the score in shots in the second half was 1:14 (on goal – 0:3).
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The Dutch goal was amusing. After the throw-in, Dragushin did not finish his duel with Gakpo, thinking that the ball would go out of bounds, and the rest of the Romanian defenders lost concentration for a split second. The protagonist of this match pushed the ball towards Malen, who was not blocked by Rakovitsan, who hit the practically empty goal.
As a result, the Netherlands achieved one of the most convincing victories in the round of 16, if we forget the first 10 minutes of the match. With this football, Koeman’s team can dream of something big. But one thing the Dutch definitely need to improve is the implementation of goal-scoring opportunities. However, with uncharacteristic generosity on the part of the Dutch, they scored three and won big. In added time, after a set-piece from the Romanian, Malen launched a counterattack to score a brace.
