The Dutch are out of Euro 2020 the Czech Republic shocked them in Budapest
Having watched the way in which they breezed through the group stages, you’d have been forgiven for backing Frank De Boer’s Netherlands side to go far at Euro 2020.
After a nightmarish second half against the Czech Republic, however, the Dutch have fallen at the last-16 stage.
The game in Budapest seemed to hinge on two significant moments which came early in the second half.
The first saw Donyell Malen surge clear of the Czech defence to find himself one-on-one with Tomáš Vaclík in the Czech goal. Perhaps with too much thinking time, the PSV Eindhoven opted to try and take it around the goalkeeper, who was able to gather the ball from his feet.
With Vaclík rolling the ball forward, the Czechs soon played the ball forward into space behind Matthijs De Ligt. Though the former Ajax defender appeared well positioned to deal with it, he misread the bounce and was quickly under pressure from Patrik Schick.
As he lost his footing, the ball made contact with De Ligt’s arm. Though he was initially given a yellow card by the referee, the decision was changed to a red after consulting VAR.
An absolutely shambolic couple of minutes for the Dutch
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 27, 2021
A man down, the Dutch lost control. Tomáš Holeš scored with little over 20 minutes still to play to give the Czechs the lead. Any faint flicker of hope of a Dutch revival was extinguished with 10 minutes to go when Schick doubled the lead.
