Netherlands seek winning formula for Ukraine trip
Sunday, October 10, 2010
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Cor Pot hopes his Netherlands team will have learned a lesson from the 3-1 defeat by Ukraine in their play-off first leg but admits he does not know how to reverse their fortunes in the return.
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Cor Pot rued a lack of maturity in his Netherlands team after they were defeat 3-1 by Ukraine in the first leg of their UEFA European Under-21 Championship on Saturday.
The Netherlands picked up 21 points in the qualifying group stage, compared to a tally of just 16 for Ukraine. It was Pavlo Iakovenko's side, though, who came racing out of the blocks in Rotterdam to take a two-goal lead inside seven minutes. The visitors were three to the good at one stage but Luuk de Jong struck with 11 minutes remaining to give the Netherlands a glimmer of hope ahead of Tuesday's return in Kyiv.
"In top matches you get brutally punished for the mistakes we made," said Pot, who will be without Donny Gorter, suspended having been sent off the in the first instalment, in the return. "Everything we could do wrong, we did wrong. The defeat was definitely deserved. After seven minutes it was already over.
"I told them before the match: 'Do not throw away your chance, you will not experience this again.' The 2008 and 2009 group will leave after the European Championship, and most of them will never experience something like this again at their clubs.
"This result is a blow. But, although it is not nice to say as a coach, perhaps it miught be the lesson they need to gain some extra maturity. Still, we are going to try to set things straight in Kyiv. How? That is something I have to think about."
