If Romania beat Holland this evening, France and Italy will go out of Euro 2008. That’s the simple equation.
Holland should easily beat Romania – except for the fact they don’t need to. Marco van Basten’s side are already guaranteed a place in the quarter finals, thanks to good wins against the two World Cup 2006 finalists. So why would Van Basten risk his best players picking up an injury or a card in a match where the result doesn’t count.
So no surprise to see the team for tonight’s game:
Both the French and Italian teams have been worried and complaining about how they could go out because the Dutch play a weakened team. But why not rest, Sneijder, Van der Sar, and Kuyt, and prevent Ooijer and de Jong, both on a booking, picking another one up.
In a tournament I’m not sure there is ever a good time, from the perspective of all the other teams to rest players, someone will always feel hard done by. How do you prevent that happening?
