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Netherlands have failed to qualify for Euro 2016 after a 2-3 loss to Czech Republic at the Amsterdam Arena on Tuesday night. The Dutch needed a win and other results going in their favour but the loss confirmed a fourth place finish and failure to qualify even through a possible playoff.
Turkey beat Iceland 1-0 to confirm third place with 18 points while the Oranje finished with 13 points from 10 games. The result also meant that Turkey qualified directly as the best third placed team.
Czech Republic topped the group with 22 points while Iceland, who had also confirmed qualification before the final game, finished second on 20 points. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan and Latvia had already been eliminated with only 5 points apiece.
The Czech Republic took the lead in the 24th minute when Jiri Skalak released Pavel Kaderabek down the right side. He took one touch to move the ball into the box before taking a shot that beat Jeroen Zoet. They doubled the lead 11 minutes later when Tomas Necid and Josef Sural displayed some neat trickery to get past the Dutch defence before Sural squeezed a shot past Zoet at the near post.
The referee then gave the Dutch an advantage in the 42nd minute when Marek Suchy was booked for a last man challenge on Memphis Depay. The FC Basel defender was shown a red card and sent off but Netherlands failed to capitalize on the man advantage.
20 minutes into the second half, Jiri Skalak won a free kick for Czech Republic and the resultant free kick was turned into the net by Robin van Persie. As Van Persie tried to head the cross from the right flank back to his goalkeeper, Zoet could only watch as it nestled in the back of the net.
Netherlands managed to score twice towards the end of the game when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored with a header from a Wesley Sneijder corner in the 70th minute and Van Persie made amends by toe-poking Bas Dost’s headed pass in the 83rd minute. It was his 50th goal for Netherlands.
But even a comeback would have been pointless with Turkey beating Iceland, thus ensuring the Dutch would fail to qualify for the Euros since 1984.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Czech Republic | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 22 |
| 2 | Iceland | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 20 |
| 3 | Turkey | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 18 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 13 |
| 5 | Kazakhstan | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 18 | −11 | 5 |
| 6 | Latvia | 10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 19 | −13 | 5 |
