Hey everyone, sorry this is late. We’re in the home stretch now, just five days of football remain in this tournament. Better discuss it, then.
Romania 0-3 Netherlands
Well this was just superb from the Dutch.
It was a pretty slow start before Cody Gakpo scored a stunner to get the Netherlands ahead. I must admit, I’ve always been a Gakpo sceptic, but he’s made me question some things at this tournament. When he plays on the left, he’s a mismatch for just about any full back, standing at a reported 6’4 (1.93m) but still retaining a pretty low centre of gravity. He doesn’t have the acceleration to blitz past guys in the way Jürgen Klopp likes to use his wingers, but that’s not such a problem here. Ronald Koeman couldn’t get the best out of Sadio Mané at Southampton, so his demands from wingers are very different to Klopp’s requirements. He’s been scoring at over three times his xG in this tournament, which obviously isn’t going to last forever, but he does strike a ball cleanly. I still think he was a very poor fit for a Klopp team, but there’s a player in there, so we’ll have to see what Arne Slot makes of him.
I was really pleasantly surprised by how positive the Netherlands were in this game. Tijjani Reijnders was moving the ball forward nicely, netting a very impressive 10 progressive passes. It’s been a tournament for central midfielders getting time on the ball against sides who don’t press well, and while Reijnders might not be of the same quality as a Toni Kroos or Rodri, the principle is the same.
They got the second and third goals late after somehow failing to score chance after chance. These were a case of getting better results against tired legs through Gakpo and Donyell Malen’s individual quality (not a sentence I expected to write). But it doesn’t matter that the goals came so late. This was total domination from start to finish. A completely clear cut win.
The Dutch will now face Turkey in a game they should be favourites for. Which brings us to…
Austria 1-2 Turkey
Look, when it’s not your day, it’s not your day. But let’s talk about what happened here.