In the third round of Group D matches at the Euros, the Netherlands twice came from behind but ultimately lost 3-2 to Austria, securing only third place in the group. After the match, Dutch national team manager Ronald Koeman spoke to the media.
Koeman commented, “If you don’t stand firm defensively and are not active enough, it’s naturally a poor performance. Also, our communication wasn’t good. I don’t think we were unprepared, but it’s my responsibility; it was a poor display.”
“I saw too much man-to-man marking instead of using space. I won’t blame the players, but for the second and third goals, our players didn’t follow their opponents well enough. Substitutions? As a national team coach, you have to intervene if we play like that.”
“We were inferior in every aspect in the beginning, they had many chances, we weren’t active enough, didn’t put enough pressure on them. We didn’t take control early on, then we improved a bit, created some opportunities, but they punished us. We must take responsibility for our performance on the pitch; we didn’t deserve a better outcome.”
“We knew before the game that if we finished third, we’d face a strong team in the next round. We’ll wait and see what happens.”