Munich — The Netherlands beat Romania 3-0 on Tuesday to reach the quarter-finals of the European Championship for the first time in 16 years.
Cody Gakpo equalised in the 20th minute and Donnell Malen added two goals in the second half to send the Netherlands into the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time since 2008.
The Netherlands missed numerous chances to extend their lead earlier, with captain Virgil van Dijk also hitting the post, but it was still a much improved performance compared to their disappointing 3-2 defeat to Austria in the group stage.
The Netherlands have an immediate chance for revenge if Austria beat Turkey in their last-16 tie on Tuesday afternoon, with a quick replay in Berlin on Saturday.
It was Gakpo’s third goal of the tournament, making him joint top scorer alongside Germany’s Jamal Musiala, Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze and Slovakia’s Ivan Schranz.
Romania dominated possession until Gakpo’s goal, but never tested Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. Instead, the opening goal came when Xavi Simons burst forward before finding Gakpo on the left. The Liverpool striker fired past the blue-haired Andrei RaÈ›iu into the near bottom corner.
The goal seemed to have given the Dutch confidence and they had several chances to extend their lead. Many of their orange-clad fans thought they had scored again six minutes later when Stefan De Vrij was allowed to head a free from a corner, but he fired the ball just outside the right-hand post and rattled the side netting.
Radu Dragusin’s goal-saving tackle denied Memphis Depay’s tap-in and the Netherlands went one step closer to doubling their lead just before half-time.
Denzel Dumfries did well to stop the ball from going over the byline before playing it back to the unseen Simons, who should have struck first but instead took a touch, allowing the Romanian defenders to close him out and, under pressure, he fired wide of the right-hand post.
Romania almost scored an own goal when Bogdan Rakovitan cleared Depay’s shot from the line and it found team-mate Marius Marin, but the ball ended up in the arms of goalkeeper Florin Nita.
Van Dijk also saw a header come over the right post.
Gakpo had a goal ruled out for offside in the second half, but managed to keep the ball in play under pressure from Drăgușin before slotting the ball into the back of the net from the left-hand side for Malen to score.
And the Netherlands made a dominant performance in added time when Simmons raced past Malen on the halfway line and beat Nita.
___
AP EURO 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024
