Van Basten happy for ItalyHolland coach Marco van Basten claims he is "happy" to see Italy in the last eight of Euro 2008 even though his team are on a potential collision course with the world champions in the semi-finals.
A Dutch defeat to Romania on Tuesday night would have knocked the Azzurri out of the competition along with France, whatever the result of their meeting in Zurich.
However, Van Basten's side were a class above the Romanians at Bern's Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, running out convincing 2-0 winners to hand Italy, 2-0 victors over Les Bleus, a lifeline.
Van Basten is not too concerned about the prospect of a difficult last-four clash in which Roberto Donadoni's side would be seeking revenge for their 3-0 mauling by the Oranje in the Swiss capital last week.
"If we face Italy again we'll be in the semi-finals," said Van Basten after second-half goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie saw off Romania.
"I think we'll just prepare ourselves now for the quarter-finals on Saturday."
Donadoni's position would have been under intense scrutiny had Italy been knocked out at the group stage, and Van Basten is pleased his former AC Milan team-mate's side have made it to the knockout phase.
"I know him very well, he's a friend of mine," said the Dutch boss. "In a situation like this it's not good to have contact with each other (in the build-up).
"But in the end I am happy that he has gone through - happy for him and for Italy."
Van Basten made nine changes to his starting line-up from the team which hammered France 4-1 in their previous outing, with only Orlando Engelaar and Khalid Boulahrouz retained.
And the Oranje coach was pleased to see the stand-ins impress while he rested several key players.
"We had two difficult matches against Italy and France, which were mentally and physically very demanding," he said.
"We are facing a quarter-final now and hopefully we will have to play more matches which will require more mental and physical exertions.
"All the players who were on the pitch created excellent impressions. We have 23 players who are all international players for the Dutch team and I'm very satisfied with this.
"I'm also satisfied with the fact we handled these three matches so properly and so well."
In particular, Van Basten was delighted with Tuesday's professional performance, with some pundits having predicted a Romania win to eliminate both 2006 World Cup finalists.
"I'm happy that in a game like this we played seriously. We did our job with a lot of other players than in the first two matches," he said.
"Now the group phase is over, the knockout stage starts with the quarter-finals and with that comes different emotions so we have to see how we react to that."
Next up for Holland is a last-eight clash against either Russia or Sweden at Basle's St Jakob-Park on Saturday, and Van Basten admits things could hardly be going better in his last campaign at the helm.
"I'm very happy that we have a good group with good skills," said the 43-year-old, who will take over as Ajax head coach after Euro 2008.
"We all feel well together, working well, laughing with each other. The atmosphere is very good. If we continue like his, I don't know where it will end."
ვაიიი, მარკო არაფერი მიქარო იცოდე
This post has been edited by zvintik on 19 Jun 2008, 16:51
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ჰოლანდიური ფეხბურთის ფანკლუბი, HUP HOLLAND!!!
