Ronald Koeman is very pleased with the performance of the Dutch team, he says after the victory over Romania (0-3). The national coach is particularly positive about Xavi Simons, who in his eyes was 'the very best'.

“I have seen several beautiful things,” Koeman begins in front of the camera. NOS“The team was aware that the previous match was very bad in many ways.”

“I think we played very well throughout the game. Maybe we just had to let go of the tension in the first ten minutes. After that we found our free men and things started to go really well.”

Koeman's team played a convincing match and was much stronger than Romania: 0-3. Cody Gakpo was the absolute star with a goal and an assist, substitute Donyell Malen was also important with two goals.

“It went the way we wanted, especially on the right,” the coach continues. “Belgium also showed against Romania that there were spaces there. We had analyzed that well. Denzel Dumfries, Jerdy Schouten, Stefan de Vrij and Steven Bergwijn played that out very well. There was a lot of danger there.”

After Bergwijn, Nathan Aké and Schouten were also substituted. “Jerdy had some trouble, and he indicated that we had to substitute him. Nathan had been suffering the past few days, so if you have good substitutions, you can give them some rest.”

Koeman also made it clear that he did not consider Malen, Gakpo or Schouten, but Simons to be the best player on the field. “He was absolutely the best today. Fantastic. He was easily accessible and the drive… He always has that aggression and maybe he plays a little more freely at 10. We've figured that out now.”

At the same time, the national coach is also very positive about goal scorer Gakpo. “Cody is a player who is steady and physical. He is very important. He is involved in many goals and he also scores one himself. A great goal. He is a player with extra qualities and fortunately he is making the difference at the moment,” Koeman concludes.

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