We are getting to the heart of the matter, and the idea of diving into a new tournament makes sense for certain selections of this Euro 2024. The Netherlands
can attest to this. Sluggish and irregular during the group stage, the Oranje were up against one of the most attractive teams of the first fortnight, Edi Iordanescu’s Romania.
Based on these first impressions, we expected a good match. But this balance of power ultimately turned quite brutally in favour of the Netherlands, thus confirming that the force of habit often makes the difference when the altitude rises.
Gakpo, the providential man
The start of the match showed everything that had carried Romania until then: energy, talent, real cohesion and intense pressure to hinder the opponent’s recovery. Good intentions that Dragus and his teammates were unable to materialize to outline the contours of a victory. From then on, the Tricolori remained at the mercy of this team from the Netherlands. Methodical, patient and powerful, Koeman’s gang ended up taking the upper hand.
Memphis Depay was expected, but it was Cody Gakpo who brought the light. The revelation of the Qatari World Cup a year and a half ago, the Liverpool striker once again donned his providential man’s costume. It was he who unblocked the situation with a beautiful percussion-low-striking strike sequence at the edge of the area, in the first half (1-0, 20th). It was he, again, who swapped his role as scorer for that of passer by providing a little caviar to Malen for the goal that gave him the break at the end of the match (2-0, 83rd).
The same Malen scored twice with a great solo move in stoppage time (3-0, 90th+3). In the meantime, the Netherlands had multiplied the hot situations before salting the score. They will meet the winner of Austria-Turkey for a potential revenge. Romania can leave with their heads held high.
