Donyell Malen double sinks Romania to put Netherlands in last eight

Clicking back into gear after a stumble against Austria, the Netherlands brushed aside the challenge of Romania – literally in the case of Cody Gakpo bursting beyond Radu Dragusin to set up the decisive second goal – and head into the quarter-finals in form.

This was a vindication for coach Ronald Koeman, whose selection was spot on and his substitutions even more so. For their opponents, this still counts as a good tournament, and their fans made one heck of a noise.

But the gulf in class between Romania and the Oranje in blue was clear and only grew larger as the game went on. Donyell Malen scored a brace in the last 10 minutes after coming on at half-time, confirming a first-half lead delivered clinically by Gakpo.

Romania’s army of fans made their feelings clear as the game kicked off. Unfurling a banner that read “give everything for the final” (this may be a loose translation) they were not in the mind to go home now.

It seemed the players were of the same persuasion, and they began the game at a furious pace and for a short while the Dutch looked panicked.

A dangerous cross from Iannis Hagi as early as the second minute only just cleared the head of striker of Denis Dragus. In besting Nathan Aké, however, Hagi suffered a cut to the head and played the rest of the game wearing a bandage and a hairnet, the Ena Sharples of the Carpathians.

After a delightful driven cross from inside his own half by Andre Ratiu nearly sent Dragus clear on goal, and Bart Verbruggen was forced to hastily turf a backpass into the stands, it appeared the Romanian blood was up. But much like a famous resident of Transylvania, the apparently dormant Dutch woke up when the Romanians least desired it.

The opening goal came on 25 minutes and it was a delicious move, begun by the unassuming Jerdy Schouten. His little pass ran only 10 yards, but it bisected the Romanian midfield entirely and found Xavi Simons in a pocket of space.

Simons span and released Gakpo out wide and he knew what he was about to do next. He took Ratiu towards the touchline then cut back away, took a touch across the corner of the box and drilled a low shot inside Florin Nita’s near post. Could the keeper have saved it? Perhaps, but at 125kph, at least it was over quickly.

The Dutch then dominated the rest of the half completely and made such hay down their right hand side where Denzel Dumfries was having a ball, that Edward Iordanescu was forced to replace his stand in left-back, Vasile Mogos, with another, Bogdan Racovitan, 10 minutes before half-time. Racovitan’s first act was to be absolutely diddled by a Memphis Depay trick.

His second was to surrender the ball to Dumfries inside the area and Simons should really have scored, but took a touch from six yards out and the opportunity passed him by.

Koeman doubled down on exposing Romania’s left-back black spot, replacing Stephen Bergwijn who had played just fine with Malen and his lightning pace at the break. Sure enough Malen got in behind Racovitan almost instantly and his cut back should have been finished by first Simons then Depay, but wasn’t.

Just before the hour Malen should probably have taken on Nita after being sprung clear once again, but cut the ball back and it was intercepted. From the resulting corner Virgil van Dijk hit the post with a header. Four minutes later and Nita denied Gakpo after running the length of the field and from that corner, Gakpo scored only to denied by VAR for offside.

The tide was unrelenting, but the longer the score stayed on as it was, everyone knew the laws of football physics would point towards a Romanian comeback. Iordanescu rolled the dice with 20 minutes to go, taking off Hagi, Dragus and midfield linchpin Marius Marin for fresh legs.

If anything, though, Romania were only more open as a result. Substitute Joey Veerman took a cute Gakpo backheel and shot just wide, Gakpo should have scored when played in by a driving Malen. But with five minutes remaining, the roles reversed and Gakpo knocked his way past Dragusin on the byline to give Malen a tap-in, an invitation the Dortmund man duly accepted.

Malen scored again with the final kick of the match, bursting through for the umpteenth time and driving in at the same near post

Romania: Nita, Ratiu, Dragusin, Burca, Mogos (Racovitan 38), Marius Marin (Cicaldau 72), Man, Razvan Marin, Stanciu (Olaru 88), Hagi (Alibec 72), Dragus (Mihaila 72).

Netherlands: Verbruggen, Dumfries, de Vrij, van Dijk, Ake (van de Ven 69), Schouten (Veerman 69), Reijnders, Bergwijn (Malen 46), Simons, Gakpo (Weghorst 84), Depay (Blind 90).

Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany).