Holland advance to quarterfinal

The 3-0 scoreline may not reflect how the Dutch were made to sweat by a determined Romanian unit. It was a sea of yellow in Munich where the Romanian fans poured in numbers to back their players Unfurling a banner that stated of going all the way to the final and they were in no mood to go home now. It seemed the players were of the same persuasion, and they began the game at a furious pace and for a short while the Dutch looked panicked.

A dangerous cross from Iannis Hagi as early as the second minute only cleared the head of striker Denis Dragus. After a delightful driven cross from inside his own half by Andre Ratiu nearly sent Dragus clear on goal, and Bart Verbruggen was forced to hastily turf a backpass into the stands, it appeared the Romanian blood was pumping. 

The Dutch were reorganizing and trying their best to wake up from the nightmare against Austria a few days back. 

Jerdy Schouten's short pass bisected the Romanian midfield and found Xavi Simons in a pocket of space. Simons span and released Cody Gakpo out wide who took Ratiu towards the touchline then cut back away, took a touch across the corner of the box and drilled a low shot inside Florin Nita’s near post.

A much-needed goal that brought The Dutch back into the game. 

The Dutch then dominated the rest of the half - made such hay down their right-hand side where Denzel Dumfries was having a ball, that Edward Iordanescu was forced to replace his stand in left-back, Vasile Mogos, with another, Bogdan Racovitan, 10 minutes before half-time. 

Racovitan’s first act was to be absolutely diddled by a Memphis Depay trick. His second was to surrender the ball to Dumfries inside the area and Simons should have scored - taken a touch from six yards out and the opportunity passed him by.

Ronald Koeman doubled down on exploiting the weak left side of Romania by replacing Stephen Bergwijn with Donyell Malen whose lightning pace at the break sparked the Dutch. Malen got in behind Racovitan almost instantly and his cutback should have been finished by first Simons then Memphis Depay, but wasn't! 

Iordanescu rolled the dice with 20 minutes to go, taking off Hagi, Dragus and midfield linchpin Marius Marin for fresh legs but instead - it exposed Romania. 

Substitute Joey Veerman took a cute Gakpo backheel and shot just wide, Gakpo should have scored when played in by a driving Malen. 

But with five minutes remaining, Gakpo knocked his way past Dragusin on the byline to give Malen a tap-in, an invitation the Dortmund man duly accepted. 

Malen scored again with the final kick of the match, bursting through for the umpteenth time and driving in at the same near post. 

Only three players have scored twice after coming off the bench in a Euro match since 1980: Oliver Bierhoff against the Czech Republic in the 1996 Final, Savo Milošević against Russia in 2000 and today, Donyell Malen against Romania. 

Malen scored his eighth goal for Holland as a substitute, with only Pierre van Hooijdonk (10) and Klaas Jan Huntelaar (8) finding the net more often after coming off the bench with Wout Weghorst also 7.

Note: Excerpts from The Guardian 

Thank You 

Faisal Caesar