Cody Gakpo has challenged the Netherlands to wipe the slate clean for today's Euro 2024 last-16 meeting with Romania (5pm, RTÉ2/RTÉ Player) after narrowly escaping their group with an underwhelming effort.
The Dutch will be looking to improve on a campaign that saw them set up the Munich meeting as one of the four best third-place finishers after the group stage.
The Liverpool forward shared head coach Ronald Koeman's assessment that his side lacked energy in their first three meetings, and vowed the Oranje had more in the tank following their 3-2 loss to Austria.
Gakpo said: "We will need to start fighting from the first few seconds. We’ve got a good plan. Everybody was disappointed (after Austria).
"We knew it has to be better. We discussed it, we trained on that basis, and we got through, and now it will really start."
Koeman said: "It has been a very long week. Seven days is a long period between two matches at a tournament like this.
"We've certainly had enough time to review and analyse the match against Austria, and what went wrong. We didn't play compact enough, which sometimes makes it seem like you're not aggressive enough.
"Players and staff were open with each other. After that you continue and look for a reaction in training. Everyone knows that things can and should be done differently and now we look forward to seeing the confirmation of that tomorrow."
Injuries to key midfielders like Frenkie de Jong, Marten de Roon, and Teun Koopmeiners have seen Koeman struggle to find the right combination in the middle.
"It's a long story and I don't like to talk too much about who is missing," he said. "This is the squad that we have and we need to improve, but it's not only the midfield but sometimes the communication between the centre backs and the midfielders needs to be better."
"We are a proud nation. We like to win, we like to play nice football, but that doesn’t always happen. We take the criticism... no problem… and we'd like to turn it around and make people happy about the final result.
"We take Romania really seriously; we know what we can expect and we need to improve compared to the last match."
Netherlands 2-3 Austria
Head coach Edward Iordanescu says Romania are ready to write a new chapter.
Romania are 40 spots below seventh-placed Netherlands in the FIFA rankings and have won only two of their 19 games at six Euros finals appearances.
But Iordanescu's side, who topped Group E with four points, made an impressive start to the tournament with a 3-0 win over Ukraine before a 2-0 loss to Belgium and a final draw against Slovakia that made them group winners.
Iordanescu remained wary of underestimating his opponents but feels his Group E winners have what it takes to secure passage to the quarter-finals for the fourth time in their history, and the first time since 2000.
His father Anghel also coached Romania to the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals.
He said: "We want to be in the history books, and that would mean to go at least one more step. I hope this is a new moment for Romanian football and the national team.
"We know we have to be close to perfection tomorrow to have a good result. Mentally we have to be very strong and decisive. We have to show that on the pitch.
"I think my team can do that. We must not make individual mistakes and be very well organised.
"Don't be fooled by how the Netherlands played against Austria.
"No game is easy, especially not one that can get you into the quarter-finals. The Netherlands are favourites tomorrow. They have incredible players but we have our own strengths."
Defender Nicusor Bancu will miss out, serving a one-game suspension after picking up two bookings, with Deian Sorescu the likely man to replace him in what could be a number of changes.
Midfielder Razvan Marin said: "Expectations are higher, but we are ready to do big things."
Watch every game from Euro 2024 on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player as well as highlights and goals as they happen on RTÉ Sport digital platforms.
