BotN: Things starting to look bad for Holland, admits Van Marwijk
Back of the Net report on Portugal 2-1 Holland
Holland boss Bert van Marwijk has admitted that his Dutch side have it all to do to secure a place in the quarter-finals after defeat against Portugal left them with no points on the board and no games remaining.
Van Marwijk's 2010 World Cup finalists were amongst the pre-tournament favourites but a sluggish opener against Denmark, sluggish second game against Germany and sluggish final match against Portugal have seen their odds slide considerably from 4/1 to âÂÂ/1 with most bookmakers.
Trailing second-placed Portugal by six points with no games left to play, coach Van Marwijk has been forced to confess that it might not be HollandâÂÂs year.
gâÂÂI canâÂÂt deny that we have made things hard for ourselves by losing every one of our scheduled fixtures at the competition,â Van Marwijk told FourFourTwo. âÂÂWe arenâÂÂt exactly in the box seat in Group B.
âÂÂIn an ideal world we would have picked up nine points by now, failing that seven, six, five, four, three or indeed one point. But we still have a lot to give in this competition and I donâÂÂt think anyone will be writing us off just yet.âÂÂ
"Look on the floor⦠they might have dropped a point"
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
The Dutch will take heart from the Czech RepublicâÂÂs gutsy run at Euro 2008, when they shrugged off being eliminated in the group stages to set up a three-team quarter-final against Turkey and Croatia, then a semi-final against Turkey, Croatia and Germany before suffering a heart-breaking final defeat at the hands of Spain, Germany, Turkey and Croatia.
More match reports from Back of the Net:
GRE 1-0 RUS: UEFA hope Greece forget to claim their quarter-final slot
POL 0-1 CZE: Polish celebratory vodka repurposed as misery vodka
SWE 2-3 ENG: Ice-cool England dispatch Sweden with ruthless efficiency...
UKR 0-2 FRA: Ukraine, 400-year-old God of Thunder unable to stop France
During the Euros, Back of the Net will tweet live during the match.
Follow the commentary at http://twitter.com/backofthenetFFT
...and FourFourTwo's updates at http://twitter.com/FourFourTwo