Romania vs Netherlands live updates: Euro 2024 match team news ...

Koeman discussed the reaction of his staff and his players to the Austria defeat, which came exactly a week ago.

“It was a long week, I would have preferred it to be a bit shorter,” he said yesterday. “On the other hand, we had a lot of time to look back at the last match. We were able to analyse where things went wrong, where we were not good, where there was too little energy. We did that, the players and the staff were open about it.

“Everyone showed how things could and should be different, but you can only see the confirmation on the field on Tuesday. We have played worse than against Austria. We want to show beautiful football, but that doesn’t always work. Then you take the criticism to heart and hope to be able to turn it around.”

Six of the teams at Euro 2024 are already focusing on the quarter-finals coming in a few days' time.

We already know the line-up for three of the four matches, while the last one will be confirmed later.

If you take a trip to Anfield when Liverpool are playing, you won't hear a bad word said from the home supporters about centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

But the reality is very different for him when he plays for the Netherlands.

Speaking after the 3-2 defeat to Austria in their last game, legendary striker Marco van Basten said: "He’s got to lead and he’s the one we’re going to hold accountable in the end.

"He has to organise things and he is responsible. He is the great leader of the team and you have to organise these kinds of things better."

So why are the reactions towards Van Dijk so different at club and international level? The Athletic's Simon Hughes explains below.

For a second, Cristiano Ronaldo looked like he might be on the edge of tears. Then suddenly, no, he was over the edge. The floodgates had opened and he was bawling now. In front of a capacity crowd in Frankfurt and a huge global television audience, arguably the most famous athlete on the planet was in floods of tears.

And there was still a game to be won, a place in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals to be secured.

It was astonishing to witness. The Portugal captain had endured another frustrating evening, still chasing his first goal of the tournament, and now, having been given the chance to break Slovenia’s resistance, he had seen a penalty saved brilliantly by goalkeeper Jan Oblak. The tension and anguish that had been building inside him suddenly boiled over.

Read more below

GO FURTHER

Cristiano Ronaldo cannot rage against the dying of the light forever

Well, where to start with yesterday's action.

Let's start at the end where Diogo Costa's penalty shootout heroics saved Portugal's — and Cristiano Ronaldo's in particular — bacon after a goalless draw with Slovenia.

There were wayward free kicks, a saved penalty and tears from Ronaldo before an apology and joy after Costa saved all three penalties in a 3-0 shootout win.

Before that game, France and Belgium one of the more bland games at this tournament and it was France who prevailed thanks to a lucky deflection off Jan Vertonghen.

GO FURTHER

Euro 2024 day 18: Ronaldo redemption, Bellingham under scrutiny and what now for Belgium?

The final day of last-16 action and the last day before another two-day break, so savour it while you can!

This game is the first of the two before dark horse pairing Austria and Turkey meet in Leipzig.

Cody Gakpo, who scored in the defeat to Austria, also touched on the feeling within the Dutch camp after that game.

"We will need to start fighting from the first few seconds. We’ve got a good plan. Everybody was disappointed," he said.

"We knew it has to be better. We discussed it, we trained on that basis, and we got through, and now it will really start."

Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman did not mince his words after his side’s 3-2 defeat by Austria.

Speaking to UEFA’s in-house media, Koeman said: “It was very bad. We did not control the match early; later on, we performed slightly better and we had a few opportunities, but they punished us. We have to take responsibility on the pitch, we are not entitled to get a better result.

“We started very badly in many aspects; there were many openings for the opponent. We were not aggressive and there was a lack of pressure on the opponents.”

We have seen some shocks in Dutch football of late — the decline of Ajax domestically chief among them — but their 3-2 defeat by Austria in their final group game is right up there. Austria were as good as the Netherlands were poor, with Ralf Rangnick’s side quick out of the blocks with few answers from Ronald Koeman’s side.

He rolled the dice with a first-half substitution and got his team to respond well after half-time but there was not enough of a reaction from the Netherlands after Austria’s second goal.

Wout Weghorst continued the theme of this being a summer for the return of big strikers with involvement in Memphis Depay’s goal to make things level at 2-2 but the Dutch were too easily unpicked at the back and looked flat.

They could have ended up facing Turkey, like group winners Austria, or Belgium, like group runners-up France. Instead they today take on a Romania side who will fancy their chances of an upset.

Romania’s Edward Iordanescu was keen to defend his team — and Slovakia’s — honour after the 1-1 draw.

“Some people should apologise to us about what was said before the game. Both teams gave everything for 80 minutes to try to win the game. But people spoke before the game and threw mud at us, they questioned our dignity, it was shameful and it was not nice. They should have waited until after the game to comment but they threw garbage at us. Both teams. We showed he had character and if we were going to lose we would have gone home with our dignity intact.

“Today, I am very proud that I am a Romanian — I think all Romanians around the world will be. I don’t know what we can do in the future but I’m very grateful to reach the next stage. Almost the whole stadium was yellow, the fans were so close to us, they were at the hotel, they have been with us when we’ve made trips, at training. It’s been incredible and I hope we can keep it going.”

Before a ball was kicked, Romania and Slovakia knew they could qualify from Group E if they avoided defeat in their final group stage match against one another.

The expectation (but not guarantee) that Belgium would get a positive result against Ukraine in the group’s other match going on at the same time raised fears the Frankfurt crowd might see a repeat of The Disgrace Of Gijon — where West Germany and Austria pretended to play football for 90 minutes to both get out of their group at the 1982 World Cup.

But rest assured, Slovakia and Romania wanted to win their final game from the off.

The opening 13 minutes delivered seven attempts on goal. There was no attempt to ’game theory’ their way out of this group finale, but instead some good old-fashioned footballing fun. The opening goal, scored by Ondrej Duda, came from a lovely deep cross from experienced (today made for his 130th Slovakian cap) right-back Peter Pekarik.

Romania responded through a Ianis Hagi dribbling move that wrong-footed defender David Hancko into giving away a penalty. The screens in the Waldstadion said Razvan Marin’s hammered spot-kick reached a speed of 157kph (98mph).

With temperatures pushing north of 30C (86F), both sides could have been content for a score draw after that, passing it nicely around the back, but they went for it instead. It was a little error-strewn, but extremely entertaining.

So what brought it all together? A desire to avoid France in the round of 16 and enter the “weaker” side of the bracket? The old Corinthian spirit? Slovakia and Romania put on an attacking feast. Purely for the love of the game.

Romania’s history in the European Championship is not an especially storied one as this will be just their sixth appearance at the tournament.

And in only one of their previous five appearances have they made it out of their group; reaching the quarter-final where they were beaten 2-0 by eventual finalists Italy in 2000.

They did not qualify for: 1960 (France), 1964 (Spain), 1968 (Italy), 1972 (Belgium), 1976 (Yugoslavia), 1980 (Italy), 1988 (Germany), 1992 (Sweden), 2004 (Portugal), 2012 (Poland/Ukraine), 2020 (Various).

Few would have predicted this match-up at the beginning of the tournament.

The Netherlands were expected to be battling it out with France for top spot in Group D, but ended up sneaking into the knockout stage by virtue of being one of the best third-placed teams. And Romania were rank outsiders but excelled expectations by topping Group E, in which every team finished with four points.

Regardless of who wins today, the victors will have high hopes of pushing on to reach the final four in Germany. That’s because the winners will take on either Austria (ranked 25th in the world by FIFA) and Turkey (ranked 42nd). Of the teams left in the tournament only Romania (47th) are ranked lower.

Goalkeepers: Bart Verbruggen (Brighton), Mark Flekken (Brentford), Justin Bijlow (Feyenoord).

Defenders: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Stefan de Vrij (Inter), Micky van de Ven (Tottenham Hotspur), Daley Blind (Girona), Matthijs de Ligt (Bayern Munich), Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Denzel Dumfries (Inter), Lutsharel Geertruida (Feyenoord), Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen), Ian Maatsen (Borussia Dortmund, on loan from Chelsea).

Midfielders: Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig), Joey Veerman (PSV), Jerdy Schouten (PSV), Gini Wijnaldum (Al Ettifaq), Tijjani Reijnders ( AC Milan).

Forwards: Steven Bergwijn (Ajax), Memphis Depay (Atletico Madrid), Brian Brobbey (Ajax), Wout Weghorst (Hoffenheim), Donyell Malen (Borussia Dortmund), Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Joshua Zirkzee (Bologna).

Goalkeepers: Florin Nita (Gaziantep), Horatiu Moldovan (Atletico Madrid), Stefan Tarnovanu (FCSB).

Defenders: Nicusor Bancu (Universitatea Craiova), Andrei Burca (Al Okhdood), Ionut Nedelcearu (Palermo), Adrian Rus (Pafos), Andrei Ratiu (Rayo Vallecano), Radu Dragusin (Tottenham), Vasile Mogos (CFR Cluj), Bogdan Racovitan (Rakow Czestochowa).

Midfielders: Nicolae Stanciu (Damac), Razvan Marin (Empoli), Alexandru Cicaldau (Konyaspor), Ianis Hagi (Alaves), Dennis Man (Parma), Valentin Mihaila (Parma), Marius Marin (Pisa), Darius Olaru (FCSB), Deian Sorescu (Gaziantep), Florinel Coman (FCSB), Adrian Sut (FCSB).

Forwards: George Puscas (Bari), Denis Alibec (Muaither), Denis Dragus (Gaziantep), Daniel Birligea (CFR Cluj).

Capacity: 66,000

A return to the home of Bayern Munich at Euro 2024 and the host of the first of two semi-finals.

Four games have been played at the Allianz Arena so far in this tournament, including the opener:

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