The Netherlands finished third in a tough group. It was very bad, Coach Koeman criticized his team

The Netherlands came to this year’s EURO with a strong squad, with which they thought of success. They started the group with a win, but after a draw with England, they lost to Austria and finished third. Coach Ronald Koeman was not at all happy with the performance of his charges in the last match.

The start of the Euros could not have gone better for the Netherlands. It was losing to Poland, but then the turn around came thanks to goals from Cody Gakp and hero Wout Weghorst at the end. Thanks to that, promotion was not far away at all.

The Dutch didn’t go into the match against France as favourites, but in the end they were far from winning. Xavi Simons’ shot was disallowed for offside when the attacking player partially shielded the goalkeeper.

The situation was widely discussed, but according to the rules the referee did everything right. In the end, it was a draw and both teams knew they were assured of advancing to the eight-finals.

The only thing at stake was which place would come out on top. The Dutch could have taken first place, but in the end they had to settle for third. Austria was the better team and celebrated a 3:2 win.

“We started very badly in many ways, the opponent had many opportunities. We were not aggressive and lacked pressure on the opponent,” said Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman at a press conference.

Donyell Malen sent the ball into his own net in the sixth minute. Then came the equaliser, but the Austrians soon regained the lead. The Netherlands then equalised for the second time, but then scored for the third time.

Koeman on the match against Austria

“It was very bad. We didn’t control the game at the beginning, but later we did a little bit better and we had a few chances, but they punished us,” Koeman added.

“Of course I expected the Austrians to play with intensity, but I also expected us to start better than we did. We weren’t aggressive enough, our defence wasn’t set up properly and we lost the ball too often unnecessarily,” the Netherlands coach concluded.

Source: UEFA, EURO 2024