England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France and other championship teams all successfully got tickets to the top 8 in the knockout round, and the only remaining traditional giant, the Netherlands, also ushered in the knockout round. In the early morning of July 3, Beijing time, the Netherlands and Romania clashed, Gakpo opened the scoring in the first half, and Malen scored twice in the second half to seal the victory, and the Netherlands advanced to the top 8 3:0.
The Netherlands, ranked seventh in the world, finished third in the group stage, but that sent Tulips to the less competitive bottom half. Romania finished 47th, coming out of the most chaotic Group E and beating Belgium to top the group. Koeman still had a 4-3-3 formation in this game: Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk and Ake built the backline; Schouten, Reinders, Harvey Simons make up the midfield; Depay, Gakpo and Bergwijn combined in attack; Februgen in goal. On the Romanian side, Dragusin, Razvan-Marin, Haji Jr., Stanciu and other main players also played.
After the start of the game, the two teams did not stubbornly defend, and formed a quick transition between attack and defense on the field, in the 11th minute, Harvey Simons passed diagonally, Depay stepped forward to the penalty area, and Nitzzer's low shot was saved; In the 14th minute, Dennis Mann held the ball on the right side and cut inside all the way to the far corner, but the ball just grazed the crossbar and went high; In the 20th minute, Harvey Simons received the ball on the left side of the front court and came to the familiar left corridor.
The Netherlands managed to break the deadlock and Gakpo scored his third goal at the European Championships, levelling Schlandz, Mikatadze and Musiala as joint top scorers. Gakpo also snapped a 16-year goal drought in the knockout stages of the European Championships, with the last time the Netherlands scored in a European Championship knockout game was in a 3-1 defeat to Russia in 2008 when Ruud van Nistelrooy scored the goal.
In the 25th minute, Depay took a corner kick, Burke cleared the header and went up, and De Vrij, who was outflanked at the back point, regretted the side netting; In the 30th minute, Reinders sent a precise through plug in the midfield, Dumfries had a smart cross forward on the right side, and Dragusin rushed to the ground in front of Depay to tackle and almost set himself up for an own goal. In the 43rd minute, Dumfries actively counter-attacked in front of the bottom line on the right side, Harvey Simmons was too dragged in front of the goal, and the subsequent low shot was also wide of the goal; Both sides also went into the dressing room with a one-goal advantage.
Romania came back in the second half and pressed hard, which gave the Netherlands more attacking opportunities; In the 53rd minute, Dumfries still inserted a cross in front of the right side, and Malen, who grabbed the front point, fell to the ground and was blocked by Dragusin, and Depay's follow-up shot was resolved by the Romanian backline, and the Netherlands missed the opportunity to expand the score; Four minutes later, Depay's corner kick was precisely guided, and Van Dijk shook his head and hit the post and popped up! In the 61st minute, Gakpo held the ball in the backfield and pushed a dragon to the penalty area to shoot vigorously, and Nitzer flew to make a wonderful save.
In the 63rd minute, Depay's corner kick was cleared, Schouteng crossed again from the right, Malen rubbed the momentum, Gakpo stabbed in front of the goal and scored another goal, but unfortunately the goal was offside and the first goal was invalid; In the 67th minute, Depay hit the goal with a low flat ball and rolled out of the bottom line after grazing the post. In the 72nd minute, Gakpo and Xavi Simons shared the ball after a cross in the penalty area, and Fellman, who was inserted behind, pushed the far corner but still missed the goal; In the 79th minute, Mullen sprinted with the ball and played a quick counterattack and formed a 3-on-2 situation in front, but then Gakpo's volley sent the ball to the stands.
Although the Netherlands wasted a lot of opportunities one after another, the Romanian back line gradually couldn't parry, in the 83rd minute, Gakpo saved the ball back in front of the left bottom line before the ball went out of bounds, and Malen grabbed the point and pushed it into the net, 2:0! In the 93rd minute, Mullen went to the meeting alone to freeze the score at 3:0! The Netherlands is back in the top eight of the World Series for the first time in 10 years, and Tulip's next opponents will be Austria and Turkey. Romania was unable to move forward and was blocked from the top eight.