We’ve arrived at the knockout stage of UEFA Euro 2024 as sixteen nations battle it out to be crowned the kings of Europe. There are plenty of fascinating ties to dissect in the days that lie ahead, and we’re interested to see which teams show up and which teams fade away. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the upcoming encounter between Romania and Netherlands.
Romania Form GuideSo far, so good for Romania. They’ve exceeded the expectations of many by even making it to the last 16 and now, they really do have a free hit. The expectation is that they won’t be able to hang with a lot of the teams left in the tournament, but they’ve put up a good fight in all of their games so far. Hopefully, for the sake of their fans, they’ll give it everything they’ve got in this clash.
The Romanians hit the front in style in their opener as they torched Ukraine in a comfortable, confident and decisive 3-0 win. From there, they were outplayed in a 2-0 defeat to Belgium, but a 1-1 draw with Slovakia was enough to ensure their passage through to the knockouts.
Netherlands Form GuideThe Dutch have been a bit all over the place in the tournament so far and while that’s pretty stressful for their fanbase, we tend to think it makes for pretty entertaining viewing for neutrals. The key is going to be keeping things tighter at the back following some recent uncertainty, and up top, they need to piece together some kind of cohesive plan that gives them a strong route forward.
Netherlands overcame a scare in their opener to defeat Poland 2-1 and then, when coming up against France, they felt unlucky to only come away with a 0-0 draw. Then, against Austria, they played out one of the games of the tournament - but were unable to avoid a surprising 3-2 defeat.
Match PredictionIf both teams play to their full potential, we could be in for an absolute classic here - and that’s what we’re going to back. There are plenty of attack-minded players who can really make this a high tempo game and in the end, we expect to see that result in over 2.5 goals scored between them.
