Poland proud but Slovenia rue early 'stage fright'

The Netherlands may have got their UEFA European Under-17 Championship defence off to a winning start, but coach Albert Stuivenberg was still not fully satisfied. In the day's earlier game, meanwhile, Poland edged out Belgium 1-0 but victorious coach Marcin Dorna conceded it was an even encounter.

POLAND 1-0 BELGIUM
Marcin Dorna, Poland coach
We are really proud we gave our all. It was a very tough game and Belgium really are a strong team. I think they are still one of the favourites because they have a lot of technical skill. I think we won this game thanks to physical preparation, tactical skill and technical ability. I need to see this game on the DVD to analyse and see whether we deserved it, but I am happy we took our chance. After the game we will see the good things and the bad things. It is usual that there are some negatives.

Patrick Klinkenberg, Belgium coach
We are very disappointed because we missed a lot of chances. If we'd scored, it would have been another game. Maybe it was the pressure; it was a new experience for the guys and a first game at that level. I didn't recognise my team. The problem was we lost the ball too quickly and then we had to run and run. The Polish are a strong team, very physical. I have little players who have technique but they were stronger and we didn't find a solution. The level we showed was not our level. Now we [the squad] will not talk about football, it's too difficult.

SLOVENIA 1-3 NETHERLANDS
Miloš Kostič, Slovenia coach
We have to congratulate the Dutch on their victory. They are one of the best at this age category and they played very good football, they moved the ball very quickly. We had a bit of stage fright at the beginning. We tried to force the finish in the final third. This was our first official match and the opponents were very good, they were tactically better. I hope we learn as much as we can. We don't have time to grieve as we have a match against Poland and we have to be ready as soon as possible.

Albert Stuivenberg, Netherlands coach
We are of course very happy with the three points because to start the tournament in this way is very important. I think we played a very nice first half and we controlled the game, especially in midfield. We created some chances and I think it was a deserved 2-0 lead at half-time. I'm not very satisfied with the second half, especially when we had the ball. We lost it many times when we were attacking because of our own mistakes. That's why we allowed Slovenia back into the game. In the end, though, we still scored a very third goal and I never thought we would not win this game.