Van Basten: hold the celebrations off for a while…

“Hey! Hey!! Donadoni…!! Bring De Rossi, you numbnut!!”

While the nation is partying hard, the bookies are re-doing their calculations for the odds and the international press and football-world are trying to find words to describe this Oranje victory (except for the German team manager), Marco van Basten refuses to put on his party hat.

“Luckily, the team doesn’t really experience the optimism the Dutch fans feel… It was one game. We need to stay focused and sharp. We can’t really enjoy this as we would want to, we need to move on. And don’t forget, we saw some great football, but we were also lucky in some instances. The corner kick right before the 2-0 could have been the 1-1. The Pirlo free-kick right before we scored the 3-0. We shouldn’t allow our joy to blind us for the facts. We played well, we forced our luck a bit, I’d say, but France is a different opponent and a tough one. And I don’t have to remind anyone about the trouble we had with Romania.”

Van Basten: “But, we did grow. A lot! I saw flashes of this performance against Croatia, I saw moments in the warm up and knew from training session what we could aim for. Obviously, knowing what our individual players have achieved at their clubs is common knowledge and now we had the time to use the time well and gel the players into a team. They have grown immensely. The main thing? I think the team spirit is our greatest asset. Secondly, we are able to dominate and counter-attack. I think the way our holding midfielders played for instance, was close to perfect. Always alert, tough in the challenges, and when they had the ball they immediately went for depth.”

About his choices: “We were forced to make some changes. Boulah wasn’t part of this group but it seemed with needed him (with Melchiot injured). And same with Robben and Kuyt. Kuyt played a tremendous game. That is…luck. But…luck can be described as “recognizing an opportunity and being prepared to take that opportunity”. And I think our players stepped up to the plate and managed to play and almost perfect game.”

San Marco didn’t want to talk about the quarter finals. “Oh no…we are not there yet so why discuss it? The next match against France will be tough enough. They have such a strong record in the last 10 years. A strong willed team, good physical form, tremendously talented and 100% professional and committed. The players know we will have a tough match on Friday and France is not Italy. They play differently. Basically, when we have possession we can play our game, when we lose possession we need to adjust to their way of attacking. Which is different than Italy. The Italians use central midfielder as build up starting point. The French use the flanks much more. They have different types of strikers… No, we’ll see a different game…”

Van Basten as usual didn’t answer any line up questions.