Football
Dutch coach Koeman enthusiastic: Our performance was excellent! It was excellent
The Netherlands could not be satisfied with their performance in the EURA group. However, it blasted Romania in the knockout stage and can look forward to the match against Turkey. Coach Koeman was satisfied with his team’s performance and the goal of winning the tournament was achieved.
The Netherlands could not be satisfied with their performance in the EURA group. However, it blasted Romania in the knockout stage and can look forward to the match against Turkey. Coach Koeman was satisfied with his team’s performance and the goal of winning the tournament was achieved.
The Netherlands beat Poland to start the tournament, but then drew with France in an utterly boring match. They had promotion in their pocket, but were still in contention for first place in the group of death.
In the last game, they fell short in a shootout to Austria and ended up third. While the Austrians took out the Turks, the Dutch had to deal with Romania.
So in the end they didn’t lose much in third place. Romania was the clear underdog, but fought bravely. Then they didn’t make it to the end, and the 3:0 result is perhaps too harsh.
“The final result is always the most important thing. We are Dutch, so we have to play well. Overall, our performance today was excellent. That’s exactly what we need in order to have a chance to continue in the tournament. If we drop our performance, we won’t make it to the final,” said coach Koeman at the press conference.
At the same time, he tried to explain why his team played badly one time and well the next. “Sometimes it is hard to explain why you play badly and sometimes you play well.
Today we had a difficult start, but in the end we found our way of playing and we gave the Romanians problems. What I might criticise is that it took us a long time to score the second goal. Our offense made it very difficult for Romania,” he added.
The Netherlands struggled at the last EURU when they were knocked out by the Czechs, but now they have a chance to succeed and they can count on having a strong generation in the future.
“We have great talents in the squad. But of course you have to win something, because only then will people be able to compare you to the 1988 team. Football has changed since then. You saw in the previous matches that all teams struggled to continue in the tournament,” he concluded.
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