The Netherlands Sail Through To Knockout Stages

THE NETHERLANDS Sail Through To The Knockout Stages of Euro 2020

The Netherlands were in action on Thursday evening (June 17), in the second Group C match of their Euro 2020 campaign, playing in their home stadium, the Johan Cruyff Arena, against Austria, with a crowd of 15,243 in attendance.

With Italy and Belgium both already through to the last 16 after only two games, Frank de Boer‘s side join them after a convincing 2-0 win over the Austrians, and really look quite a formidable force at the moment, even after just two matches, having failed to qualify for either of the last two European Championships, although they did reach the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup.

It was David Alaba whose tackle on PSV Eindhoven‘s wing-back Denzel Dumfries gave away a penalty after 11 minutes – after the VAR made a decision – for Lyon’s Memphis Depay to step up and put the ball into the net for the first goal of the night, and his 27th for Holland, and remarkably, Depay has been involved in 27 goals in the past 22 games for his country.

Depay was unsurprisingly involved in the second goal again, as he sent substitute Donyell Malen free, who, rather than shoot on goal, squared the ball to Dumfries for a simple tap-in, and his second goal of the tournament, saw the Netherlands sail through to the final 16.

Austria barely troubled the Dutch defence – who admittedly had looked a bit shaky against Ukraine – until the last ten minutes, with Alaba coming close with one chance, but in general, it was a one-sided affair, and now Austria have to hope for a good result in their final group game against Ukraine on Monday, while the Netherlands will play North Macedonia.

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