Ronald Koeman did not have the dream return as coach of the Netherlands in Saint-Denis, defeated by a conclusive 4-0 against France on the first day of group B qualifying for Euro 2024. The former Barça coach, with his usual sincerity, was very critical and called the performance of his players “mediocre”.
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“We had no chance of winning. After eight minutes we were already losing 2-0. Against a team like that you have to be very good. What hurts is that the first and fourth goals came from defensive errors. And, of course, also of the quality of Mbappé”, admitted Koeman.
Ronald regretted that “we had warned that we had to be very careful with these actions and we did not pay enough attention. We showed very little in this match. I didn’t expect such a difference.”
Koeman, without excuses
Despite his disappointment, Koeman made no excuses. “It’s not the team I had in mind to line up, but you already know the circumstances (five players were affected by a viral infection). I don’t want to make excuses for this mediocre performance. We should have been much more aggressive and made fewer mistakes. Nothing very positive today. We show great deficiencies in all areas of the game, the opponent was too strong for us. France is a very strong team, complete, very physical, with a lot of speed, especially in attack, world-class players in all sectors. And we haven’t arrived yet.”