De Haan delights in winning beginning

Netherlands coach Foppe de Haan believes his side still have room to improve but have put themselves in a strong position after defeating Group A rivals Israel 1-0 in the opening match of the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Hedwiges Maduro scored the only goal of the game at the Abe Lenstra Stadium in the tenth minute when he tapped in Royston Drenthe's free-kick, consigning Israel to a defeat coach Guy Levy did not feel reflected a strong performance from his side.

Foppe de Haan, Netherlands coach
This is my third year as coach of the national youth team and in my experience the first match is always difficult as you don't know the strength of your opponents or where your own team stands in relation to them. We could still improve a few things, but we won which puts us in a position to progress in the tournament. We played well at the beginning but then we gave away the initiative. When [Royston] Drenthe came up front things began to happen because of his fighting spirit. I don't know how [Ismaïl] Aissati] is at the moment. He has been suffering from the injury for quite some time already. He probably triggered it again after sliding. Now we have to wait and see but I'm not positive about it. We've got three points now but we still have a lot to do.

Guy Levy, Israel coach
I'm very proud of my players, we were just a bit unlucky with regards to scoring. In the middle of the pitch we were particularly good and were very organised. We created three or four good chances then conceded from a set-piece but that's football for you. We were facing a very good side but we were still able to stop them, particularly in the middle. We'll move on from this match to play Belgium and hopefully we'll get a good result to keep us in with a chance. I don't know much about Ben Sahar's injury but I hope he will be all right. The Dutch are the holders. They won the tournament with a defeat in their opening game last year so let's hope the same thing happens for us this time.