Wijnaldum admits to their bad performance against Czech Republic

After winning all their games in the group stage, many pundits were considering the

among the title contenders, but the

Czech Republic

defeated Frank De Boer’s men 2-0.

Matthijs de Ligt

was sent off, and this made the Netherlands' job harder, although they weren’t at their best form even before that as they saw their first game without a shot on target since at least 1980.

Netherlands captain

Wijnaldum

who didn’t have a good performance has been unable to explain his side’s poor performance.

"In the second half, we had a good chance and you have to finish that,"

he told NOS

.

"The goals we gave away, the chances we didn't take... all that goes through your head. After the red card, we found it difficult to put them under pressure. Things just got more difficult for us.

"The whole match was tough going. Somehow we couldn't deal with the way they pressurized us. We couldn't create spaces. We fashioned a few chances in the first half, but not enough.

"Before the tournament, there was a lot of criticism around our way of playing, and we turned that around. Today was an off-day. I can hardly explain it. It's very difficult, but it's the reality."

After this win, the Czech Republic will face Denmark, which crushed Wales in their last match. So we will have to wait and see what happens in that match between the two clubs that weren’t considered among the title contenders before the tournament but have shown their quality in their big clashes.

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