The Netherlands will take on Romania in Munich, but their performance so far has been worrying.
At times, the Dutch team looked solid defensively; Sometimes, they attack with a lot of firepower. What annoys manager Ronald Koeman is that the Dutch have rarely been able to combine these two aspects into a complete performance.
On paper, the Netherlands are an all-round squad that has crushed Romania and have lost just once in their last nine meetings (seven wins, one draw, one defeat), so they should be confident of reaching the quarter-finals.
It was a shock for Romania to progress to the round of 16, with few expecting them to have a chance of progressing from a group that included Belgium, Ukraine and Slovakia, let alone topping the group.
The strength of the Romanian side is difficult to gauge as they thrashed Ukraine 3-0 in their first game. After that, they were comfortably beaten by Belgium to draw with Slovakia. It's hard to shake off the feeling that they've done so well in the game, but now they're gradually eclipsed.
Team News:
Romanian left-back Nikusol Banku will miss the game due to suspension.
There are no injury problems for both teams.
Match data
- This is the second meeting between Romania and the Netherlands in a major tournament (World Cup/European Championship), which the Netherlands won 2-0 in the group stage of Euro 2008.
- Romania have a record of 1 win, 3 draws and 10 defeats in 14 games against the Netherlands, and have lost their last four games in a row since winning 1-0 in Euro qualifiers in October 2007. In those 14 meetings, Romania have scored just 3 goals and conceded 29.
- For the first time since Euro 2000, Romania reached the knockout stage of a major tournament (World Cup/European Championship), when they were eliminated by Italy in the quarter-finals.
- The Netherlands have lost the knockout stages of the last three European Championships, 2-1 to Portugal in the semi-finals in 2004, Russia 3-1 in the quarter-finals in 2008 and the Czech Republic 2-0 in the round of 16 in 2020.
- This match will be Romania's 20th match in the European Championship, with their record in their first 19 matches being two wins, six draws and 12 defeats; Previously, the country with the fewest wins in the first 20 matches was Switzerland (4).