In the Round of 16 of the European Championship, Gakpo scored a goal and assisted another, while Malen scored twice off the bench, ultimately giving the Netherlands a 3-0 victory over Romania and a spot in the quarter-finals. After the match, Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman spoke with the media.
Koeman said: “Sometimes, it’s difficult to explain why we sometimes play badly and sometimes play at a high level. The start today was difficult, but we eventually found our rhythm and caused them problems. Perhaps the only criticism is that we took too long to score the second goal. Our offense caused Romania a lot of problems.”
“Ultimately, the result is always the most important thing. We are Dutch, we have to play well. The performance today was very good overall, which is why we were able to take the lead. If we had played poorly, we wouldn’t have advanced.”
When asked about comparisons to past generations of Dutch teams, Koeman said: “We have talented players in our team. Of course, you have to win something, and then people will start comparing you to the Netherlands in 1988, but football has changed since then. You can see in recent games, every team has faced difficulties in matches, there’s no team that can go through easily.”
When talking about Gakpo, Koeman said: “He played a very important role once again. He’s strong, fast, and has extra advantages.”
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