2010 World Cup runner-up, the Netherlands have failed to qualify for Euro 2016 as a result of their 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
The Oranje threatened in the first minute when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar sent a through ball for Anwar El-Ghazi, who cut back on to his left foot before shooting at goal, only to see his effort well saved by Petr Cech.
El-Ghazi threatened again for the home side when he raided down the left and lifted the ball into the box for the run of Wesley Sneijder, but he sent his effort over the bar.
Despite the early chances for the Netherlands they fell behind in the 24th minute when Jiri Skalak released the run of Pavel Kaderabek behind the home side’s defence and the defender slotted the ball past Jeroen Zoet.
Czech Republic doubled their lead in the 34th minute when Josef Sural ran at the Netherlands defence before raiding past Virgil van Dijk and curling his effort beyond the reach of Zoet.
However, the visitors were reduced to 10 men just before half time when Marek Suchy was dismissed for bringing down Memphis Depay when the forward was about to break towards goal, giving Blind’s men hope for the second half.
Depay had the chance to reduce deficit in the early stages of the second period when he latched on to Robin van Persie’s pass on the edge of the box, but he curled his effort wide of the post.
The Netherlands’ hopes of getting back into the game all but ended when Van Persie put the ball into his own net as he tried to guide Skalak’s cross back to Zoet, but he miscued the connection to send the ball into the bottom corner.
Huntelaar restored a glimmer of hope as he rose highest in the box to head Sneijder’s corner from the right past Cech with 20 minutes to play.
The home side were given further optimism when Van Persie reacted to a flick on from Bas Dost to turn the ball past Cech from close range to bring the hosts within a goal. However, they could not find another two goals in the final 10 minutes to leave them out of the competition next year, while the Czech Republic finished top of Group A as a result of their victory and Iceland’s defeat to Turkey.
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