The Dutch team advanced to its first European Championship quarterfinal in 16 years with a 3-0 victory over Romania on Tuesday, showcasing their best performance at Euro 2024 so far.
Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in the 20th minute, and substitute Donyell Malen added two late goals to ensure the Netherlands' first quarterfinal appearance in the tournament since 2008.
“I think the whole performance today was outstanding and that’s what we need to have a chance to continue in this tournament,” said coach Ronald Koeman. “This is the level. If you go down in that level, then we don’t reach the final.”
Despite missing several opportunities to extend their lead and captain Virgil van Dijk hitting the woodwork, the Netherlands' display was a marked improvement from their group stage performance, which ended with a 3-2 loss to Austria.
Koeman’s team could face Austria again in Berlin on Saturday if Austria defeats Turkey in the final round of 16 match later Tuesday.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to explain why you play bad,” Koeman added. “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.”
Romania, supported by a large contingent of yellow-clad fans, had a memorable tournament. This was only the second time Romania had qualified for the knockout stage at a European Championship, doing so as group winners.
The enthusiastic Romanian supporters continued to sing and applaud their team long after the final whistle, creating a vibrant atmosphere in the stadium.
“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,” said Romania coach Edward Iordănescu. “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.”
Romania dominated possession until Gakpo’s goal but did not pose a significant threat to Netherlands goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. The opening goal came when Xavi Simons surged forward, finding Gakpo on the left. The Liverpool forward cut inside Andrei Rațiu and fired into the near bottom corner.
Gakpo’s third goal of the tournament put him level with Germany’s Jamal Musiala, Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze, and Slovakia’s Ivan Schranz as joint top scorer.
“We tried to surprise the Netherlands today and I think it worked well until the 20th minute,” Iordănescu commented.
The Dutch team gained confidence after the goal, creating several chances to extend their lead. A large section of their orange-clad fans thought they had scored again six minutes later when Stefan De Vrij was allowed a free header on a corner, but he narrowly missed the target.
Good goalkeeping from Florian Niță and inaccurate finishing from the Dutch kept Romania in the match until seven minutes from time.
Van Dijk had a header come off the right post in the second half, and Gakpo had a goal disallowed for offside. However, Gakpo turned provider when he managed to keep the ball in play under pressure from Radu Drăgușin and set up Malen for a close-range finish.
The Dutch capped their dominant performance in stoppage time when Simons released Malen for a surging run from the halfway line, ending with a composed finish past Niță.
During his run, Malen had to navigate around the Romanian defense and a shoe on the field, presumably thrown by a fan behind the goal. Niță had kicked away the other shoe from the same pair as Malen approached the goal.
