Cody Gakpo and Donyell Malen convincingly shoot Dutch team past Romania and into quarter-finals of European Championship

Lars Capiau


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The Dutch national team is in the quarter finals of the European Championship. The team of national coach Ronald Koeman played a convincing match and was much stronger than Romania: 0-3. Cody Gakpo was the absolute tastemaker with a goal and an assist, substitute Donyell Malen was also important with two goals. In the quarter finals (Saturday, at 21:00) the Dutch team will face the winner of the match between Austria and Turkey, which will be played later on Tuesday evening.

Koeman made three changes to his starting line-up after the 3-2 group match defeat to Austria. The most notable of these was Steven Bergwijn's place in the starting eleven. It was at the expense of Donyell Malen. Xavi Simons took over Joey Veerman's place, while Denzel Dumfries relegated Lutsharel Geertruida to the bench.

The Romanians started the match in the Allianz Arena quite fiercely. They hunted the Dutch defense with full pressure, which led to some nervous moments at the back of the Dutch team in the opening phase. A hard long-range shot by Simons was the first feat for the Netherlands, but his powerful effort ended up easily in the hands of the Romanian goalkeeper, Florin Nita.

The Romanians in particular looked dangerous in the opening phase. An alert Aké prevented Razvan Marin from running straight at Bart Verbruggen, while a fine attempt by the gifted dribbler Dennis Man just missed Verbruggen's goal. But after the strong start of the Romanians, the Dutch took control.

That immediately led to a goal. Jerdy Schouten's preparatory work was excellent. He cut out his man and found Simons with a great pass between the lines. Simons then served Gakpo, who found his man, outwitted him and struck a devastating shot in the near corner: 0-1. It meant his third European Championship goal, where the Liverpool striker also scored three goals at the previous World Cup.

Moments later, the suddenly completely dominant Oranje came close to doubling the margin. From a corner by Memphis Depay, who played his 96th international match and thus equaled Arjen Robben, the completely unmarked Stefan de Vrij headed just wide.

Memphis also came close to a second Oranje goal. A low, hard cross from Dumfries was just intercepted by Radu Dragusin. A minute before half-time, the 0-2 really should have fallen. Tireless work by Dumfries gave Simons a mega chance, but the attacker struggled with the ball and refused to swing his left foot: no goal.

Oranje continued the good line of the first half in the second half. After an impressive rush by Reijnders, the midfielder apparently shot it against the elbow of Bogdan Racovitan, who threw himself in front of the ball, but the ball did not go to the spot. That the ball did not go in for Oranje a minute or two later can be called a small miracle.

After another cross from Dumfries, the ball ended up at Memphis' feet via Malen. After a strange carambolage, Nita was able to dive on the ball to his great relief. Then there was another possible penalty moment. Dumfries was pulled to the ground by Ianis Hagi: no penalty.

Malen, Memphis and Gakpo only managed a corner from an extremely dangerous counterattack, which was headed onto the post by Virgil van Dijk. Gakpo found goalkeeper Nita in the near corner. A second goal was in the air. Gakpo, after a truly fantastic breakaway, took a hard shot, but again found Nita. From the ensuing corner, Gakpo thought he would score after all, but he scored from an offside position.

A free kick from Memphis flew just past the wrong side of the post, after which substitute Joey Veerman – loudly cheered – almost provided the second Dutch goal. After a great combination with Gakpo, he curled the ball twenty centimeters wide. Shortly afterwards, a Romanian defender shot the ball hard against Simons: again just wide.

More and more space was created, but the Dutch team just couldn't play it out well enough. Malen stormed towards the Romanian goal with Gakpo and Simons, but his pass to Gakpo wasn't quite good enough. The Romanians managed to thwart the attempt.

But, after 82 minutes, the liberating second goal finally fell. Memphis extended a throw-in well, a combative Gakpo kept the ball inside with lightning skill and managed to tap the ball to Malen. The substitute could easily tap it in: 0-2. In injury time, Malen also scored his second and the Netherlands' third goal. At the back, it was wide open for the tired Romanians. The lightning-fast attacker finished off skillfully: 0-3.

The Netherlands played an excellent game and advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championship. There, the team will face Turkey or face Austria, to whom they lost in the group stage, in a revenge match. The duel between these two countries starts at 21:00.

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