Euro 2012 Qualifiers; San Marino 0-5 vs Netherlands – Full time report
Netherlands were scheduled to take on San Marino in what was supposed to be the first qualifying match for both the teams in Euro 2012. It was pretty obvious that the favourites going into the game were going to be the flying Dutchmen. This is because, Netherlands have almost always been impressive in the qualifying rounds of every competition that they have participated in. Prior to the FIFA World Cup 2010, Netherlands had a perfect qualifying campaign in the build up to the competition.
However it was not all good news for the Dutch as the week before the start of the qualifiers Robin Van Persie managed to get himself injured again, and the player brought into replace the forward was none other than ace striker, Rudd Van Nistelrooy.
Experts had also predicted that Netherlands were more than likely to take home the much needed three points from the match that was going to be taking place.
The match was being played in the Olimpico stadium in Serravalle, San Marino. The officials who were selected to adjudicate the match were, Simon Evans who was the head referee and Philip Thomas and John Swindley who were his linesmen on the night. All three referees were Welsh nationals.
The match kicked of in predictable fashion; Netherlands were on top of things and were taking the game to their opponents who could not seem to find a way to stop the Dutch.
To make matters worse, on the fifteenth minute mark the Dutch were awarded a penalty which was calmly slotted home by Dirk Kuyt. From then on the Dutch just kicked it up a notch.
They started creating chance after chance. On the thirty eighth minute they struck again, this time however it was Klass Jan Huntelaar who got the goal for the team.
The Dutch continued to look threatening but did not manage to score any more goals in the half. The first half of the match ended with the score card reading two nil in favour of the team from Holland.
The second half picked up from where the first half ended. Netherlands continued to manhandle the San Marian team. Three minutes into the second half, Huntelaar was on target again to score for the Dutch.
The game was already over and now it was a matter of how many goals the Dutch would score before the game ended.
On the sixty seventh minute, Huntelaar was on target once again, the player had his hat trick and while doing so he surely gave AC Milan second thoughts about selling him on the last day of the transfer day.
After the fourth goal, San Marino seemed to have had the life sucked out of them. The team looked like it had lost the will to go on and was being forced to play.
Netherlands however did not care and they kept taking the game to their opposition in order to better their goal difference, since they knew that if at the end of the qualifiers some other team had the same number of points as them it would be down to the goals scored that will make the difference.
The game looked to run out, but Netherlands were not going to go that easy on the San Marian's. The Dutch grabbed another goal the in dying minutes of the game. This time around it was none other than Van Nistelrooy who got his much awaited goal on his return to the side after two years.
The match finally ended with the score line reading five goals to nil in favour of the Dutch team.
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