Holland / Netherlands vs. Italy Euro 2008 3 - 0 Slideshow

BERN, Switzerland (AP)—The Netherlands handed Italy its worst loss in a European Championship, a 3-0 rout Monday that left the World Cup champions in danger of elimination in the first round.

Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder scored in the first half, and standout defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst added the third goal on a counterattack in the 79th minute.

"This leaves us incredibly proud and with a great feeling," Sneijder said. "The first time is always incredibly important and to do this against Italy ... it gives us a lot of confidence. But we have to realize that it is not in the bag yet."

Italy's once-proud defense looked old and slow. Van Nistelrooy tore through the Azzurri defense at will. With injured captain Fabio Cannavaro sitting on the bench next to his crutches, Marco Materazzi and Andrea Barzagli were picked apart by the Oranje attack.

The win put Netherlands in charge of the toughest first-round group. The Dutch have the only win Group C after France tied Romania 0-0 earlier in the day.

The Dutch carried several injuries into the match, but the Italians started with nine players over 30 and could not match the Netherlands for creativity and doggedness.

Van Nistelrooy's breakthrough goal was claimed to be offside by Italy, but the striker deflected a 20-yard shot from Van Bronckhorst past Gianluigi Buffon with an Italy defender off the field next to the goal. That score equaled the number of goals Italy yielded in the run of play in the 2006 World Cup.

The second goal was a perfect counterattack. Van Bronckhorst kicked a ball off his own goal line and immediately rushed up the left, where he took a long pass from Rafael van der Vaart. The Italians were woefully out of position when Van Bronckhorst sent a defense-splitting pass to Dirk Kuyt on the right.

Kuyt, starting because of a groin injury to Arjen Robben, headed it perfectly into the path of Sneijder and the midfielder volleyed it past Buffon.

Edwin van der Sar, the 37-year-old Netherlands goalkeeper, produced a stunning save on Andrea Pirlo's free kick to prevent Italy from getting back in the game in the 78th. Moments later, Van Bronckhorst made it 3-0 off a scramble in the Italy area.

The Italian fans displayed signs saying "Spremuta d'Orange"—freshly squeezed orange juice—but it was a Dutch squeezing that left the Azzurri blue.

"We have to go out onto the field believing we can win," coach Roberto Donadoni said.

(by raf casert)

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Voetbal
• Euro08
• Euro
• 2008
• Holland
• Netherlands
• Italy
• Bern
• Switzerland
• 3-0
• highlights
• sneijder
• van_nistelrooy
• van_der_sar

[QQQQQQQQQQQQlQQQQQQQ]

italy got raped, suck shit

[1337steefo]

4-1 against french? need more proof?

[Woutah2dmaX]

Fuck off with your powerpoint presentations... YouTube is for VIDEOS... you stupid slideshow cunt!!!!

[rorymannetje]

@1337steefo it was

[7marcko]

I was very impressed from that holland.

I hope you'll win the world cup this time.

Greetings from italy

[shady161]

@darkhorseitalia Ha!

[seszio]

0.52 is a super gay pic lol. looks like we got beat by fairies in that pic............either way, Holland started off that tournament extremely well........should've did better against Russia though! You'll be one of the teams to beat this year......

[jobiaan]

@rspowerofmy it was 4-1 to france you nub

[bitterbalies]

holland won from italy

if you can't face it

then don't watch football

ofcourse it isn't fun to see your team lose everybody knows that but you have to face it.

and if i be honest holland played much better than italy

[darkhorseitalia]

@Gebruikersnaam10001 You DUMBASS your to STUPID to make any Sense

you putrid piece of prehistoric primative petrified Poodle POO POO

go lick a dick or maybe thats what your doing right now ? you fucking FAGGOT.

cough cough CHOKERS!!!!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

[Gebruikersnaam10001]

@darkhorseitalia

We're ugly!? Then why are you on my fucking dick?! Faggot ass bitch! And oh what a diss "running around in your streets", at least we got something to celebrate! 3-0, 3-0, 3-0, 3-0. VARI VARI VARI!

[darkhorseitalia]

you people from holland are UGLY!!!!

bunch of queers running around in your streets parading fagizim HaHaHaHa

NEVERLANDS = CHOKERS

your hair is parted in the middle you must be an ALTAR BOY!!!!