A splendid finish from Gakpo and a final brace from substitute Malen took Holland to the quarter-finals of the European Championship, overcoming the resistance of Romania, who started like a rocket but fell apart after a quarter of an hour, leaving the field to Koeman’s team who only made the mistake of wasting a dozen or so golden opportunities.
A legitimate success that allows Holland to calmly wait in the quarterfinals for the winner between Austria and Turkey. It may be the magical air of Monaco, where Van Basten and Cruyff’s squad won the 1988 European title, but Koeman can also rejoice for the quality of the game offered, for the fluidity of the departments, for a national team that seems to have awakened. Van Dijk and De Vrij lead the defense with confidence, Rejnders and Schouten are the driving forces of the game in midfield, Dumfries pushes with continuity.
Depay struggles a bit, Xavi Simons tries too much with subtleties, but Cody Gakpo, the Liverpool star, solves every problem, sealing the qualification with a goal and an assist. Making the 3-0 result more relevant is Malen’s brace, unstoppable on the wing.
The cheerful light-heartedness of Romania, competitive again after decades, clashes with the careful craft of Holland, which can count on several talents. Leading the group of yellows are two sons of art: the coach Iordanescu and the striker Janis Hagi, heir of the great Gheorghe, star of the Liga of the 90s. At the beginning Holland seems to be asleep and is taken by assault by the Romanians who move well with the class of Stanciu, the ideas of Hagi and the geometry of Razvan Marin. In the 14th minute a shot by the Parma player Man goes just over. But the light suddenly goes out, the technical and experience limits are highlighted and the Dutch rascals take the field. To break the deadlock, however, a creative idea is needed: in the 20th minute Schouten and Simons set Gakpo in motion who burns Ratiu and slips a great conclusion past Nita. Then it was only Holland: De Vrij headed the ball just wide, Dumfries, Bergwijn, Simons put the defense in crisis, which floundered and got worse with the entry of Racovitan in place of the injured Mogos. But the doubling wasted because, between slap shots and shots on goal from corners, Holland looked for the sensational shot, like in the 44th minute when Simons fumbled, wasting a run by Dumfries. In the second half it was still Holland who led the dance, with the inclusion of the unleashed Malen. The opportunities abounded with Depay and Veerman who wasted them, Van Dijk who in the 13th minute hit the outside of the post with his head, then in the 17th minute a powerful run by Gakpo with Nita saving in the corner. But Romania was now groggy and Holland continued to press with quality. In the 38th minute, Gakpo stubbornly steals the ball from a bewildered Dragusin, Malen is ready to double the lead. The Dortmund striker is not satisfied and in the 48th minute he does it all by himself on the counterattack, for a 3-0 that has the curiosity of two shoes thrown onto the pitch by a spectator, with Nita forced to avoid one before conceding the goal. Romania goes home, Holland is sure it can be a great protagonist of the event.
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