Stefan de Vrij on the ‘amazing feeling’ of scoring to help send the Dutch to first Euros semi-final for two decades

Macdara Ferris reports from Berlin’s Olympiastadion

The Dutch are past masters at possession based play and flexible fluid flowing football but bringing the big man on and getting it in the box still can pay dividends.

The Netherlands were second best for much of their quarter-final against Türkiye in Berlin on Saturday night but a six minute two goal salvo in the final quarter earned them a tie against England in Dortmund on Wednesday.

Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman introduced Wout Weghorst at half time and the big striker brought his physical presence to the game that disrupted a Türkiye team who were missing the suspended Merih Demiral.

In the 70th minute, the Dutch brought the big men up from the back for a corner and Stefan de Vrij powered home a headed goal to cancel out Samet Akaydin’s earlier headed set piece strike.

They got their second from a Mert Müldür own goal soon after with de Vrij and his teammates having to dig in after to see out the win.

After the match extratime.com asked the Inter Milan player what it meant to score a goal that has helped the Oranje make their first Euros semi-final in two decades.

“It is an amazing feeling,” said de Vrij. “It was a very important goal. In the second half we kept believing, kept playing and looking for the spaces that became bigger and bigger. We stayed patient and in the end it paid off. 

“The goal was a short corner. I could see I wasn’t being marked and Memphis played an excellent pass. Afterwards we continued and it quickly led to 2-1. We kept believing. It was good that in the last minute, the team knows how to suffer together. We can be very happy with tonight.

The Scudetto winning defender spoke about their team’s plan to take on a Turkish side who had two tough draining games before this one and who have had to juggle their preferred starting XI due to suspensions. 

“As a team we knew their strengths. They defend very well and in the last game they played five at the back and kept the lines together with not so much space for us to play in.

“We began very well but then we started losing too many balls and that is what they want. They have fast and technical players up front. They started to grow and they deserved their goal but we stayed confident and calm.

“They had given a lot in the last game. I think we had to create more space. They had a lot of discipline but the spaces became larger and we created chances.”

With the huge Turkish diaspora in Germany, and in particularly Berlin, the Olympiastadion was three quarters full of fans of the Crescent-Stars but De Vrij spoke about the importance of the Dutch supporters in the crowd.

“The fans are very important to us. It is really nice to see the Orange wall in the stadium.”

When the Dutch recently played their last group game in the same venue, after that 3-2 defeat to Austria Ronald Koeman was questioned about his future in the managerial role and was he still “razor sharp” as a coach.

Koeman wasn’t taking a victory lap in the post-match press conference having turned his team’s tournament around with the wins over Romania in the last 16 and Saturday’s quarter-final.

“For the whole nation, it is something special,” said the EURO88 winner as a player. “We are a small nation and to be in a semi final against England – along with France and Spain – we are really proud to have this opportunity.

“We had to suffer tonight. It was a really emotional match. We had a big heart and sometimes we are criticised compared with other nations but today we showed good heart having been 1-0 down.”

He spoke about the need to bring on the big man in Weghorst. “We started the game quite well but after 20 minutes the space wasn’t there. They were dominating and we had to play around them and wait for those spaces. We became sloppy. 

“We wanted to bring him on in the second half. It was clear for me we needed Wout. With Cody (Gakpo) and Denzel (Dumfries) we could get a lot more crosses in during the second half.”

He was asked who he would like to face should the Netherlands make the final.

Familiarity may breed contempt – having played France in qualifying and in the group stages (drawing 0-0) - so he didn’t choose Didier Deschamps' side who would be easier opponents than tournament favourites Spain.

“My personal preference in the final is Spain because we had France in the group but we need to prepare in the best way to play a good semi-final against England. We need to win that. It will be a great night on Wednesday between two big historic nations.”