Cody Gakpo spoke of sacrifice and of hard work as Holland finally made a mark on the European Championship to match the brightness of their thousands of orange-clad supporters. He made light of his own quality, but that was ultimately the difference. Gakpo is now joint top scorer in the competition. Where he leads, his country follows.
Ronald Koeman’s side had industry, endeavour and a hatful of opportunities against Romania, shaking the lethargy of their defeat against Austria from their system in a deserved victory.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to explain why you play badly and why you reach a high level,” Koeman said. “One critical point was that it took too long to score the second goal. We caused Romania big problems with our attacking.
