Van Bommel speechless after Danish smash and grab job

Published on 10/06/2012 00:00

Netherlands captain Mark van Bommel was lost for words in the aftermath of the defeat by Denmark.

The Dutch, many pundits’ favourites to win Euro 2012, dominated against Denmark but lost 1-0 to Michael Krohn-Dehli’s first-half strike.

“It was the only dangerous action of Denmark,” Van Bommel said. “I’m speechless, because these three points are very important.

“I don’t know if you can call this bad luck when you play like this and create so many chances. We can’t blame one player as four or five of our guys appeared in scoring positions.”

Late in the match, a penalty appeal for handball was denied when the Dutch were running out of time as Lars Jacobsen appeared to touch the ball with his upper arm in the box in a duel with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

“It is such a clear penalty, and then you likely get a draw,” Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said.

“There were maybe four, five, six players who had a lot of chances, and the referee also had a chance,” Van Marwijk said of the penalty ruling of referee Damir Skomina.

The frustration came to symbolise the sticky night in eastern Ukraine where the temperature stood at 27C and leaves the World Cup runners-up with two tough group games, against Germany and Portugal. “I refuse to throw in the towel,” Van Marwijk said. “We must beat Germany. We have done that before.”

The two great rivals meet in Kharkiv on Wednesday night.

Denmark, seen as outsiders in the toughest group of the championship, can take a huge step to the quarter-finals by beating Portugal, also on Wednesday.

“We know the Dutch, they can be very dominating,” Denmark coach Morten Olsen said. “If you get scared of them, they play really good football. I think we played them in the right way.”