Will Holland Lie Down to Romania?

[selectabet]

If you were Marco van Basten would you pla a weakened team against Romania and effectivey let them beat you to eliminate Italy and France?

I know I would.

Romania are now just 8/11 to qualify and 6/5 to beat Holland.

Worth getting on now before it goes any shorter?

[Kop66]

I dont know Selectabet. I would expect Van the Man to change his team a little now they are in this position, especially as they cant lose top spot and regardless of who would be eliminated, but i also think Van Persie and Robben need more action so it probably will be a team that's out there to win.

A Romainian win could happen but i'm siding with a draw at best for them, there may come a point in the game where that Mutu penalty miss plays on their mind too.

Niether of the odds posted look value punts to me tbh.

[selectabet]

Yeah Kop, the odds are a bit prohibitive.

But... Surely MVB must consider that its in his teams best interests to have Italy and France out of the competition. Can you imagine Holland went on to meet and get beaten by either of them in the semis? He'd be culpable IMHO.

It's a tricky one. The bookies have obviously made their minds up. If MVB comes out and confirms he'll be playing fringe players then those odds are gonna tumble I think.

If you're into trading your positions it's worth a look I think.

[Kop66]

Surely MVB must consider that its in his teams best interests to have Italy and France out of the competition

Possibly, but they have already thrashed those two teams, it's Romania who they struggled against in qualifying, i dont think they scored against them did they?

Please dont let me put you off anything Selectabet but personally i just dont think a manager at this level would send a team out to lose.

[selectabet]

I probably won't touch it TBH but I just wondered what others thought.

Agree that all being equal, Romania might be the trickiest of the 3 for Holland.

I seem to remember a 2-2 between Sweden and Demark (I think ?) at the last WC - the only result that suited both teams - I know drawing and losing are two different things but it can happen.

[AnothrSpacecat]

but would the dutch rather the romanians faced spain than the french or italians?

[selectabet]

Feck! Who knows?

[AnothrSpacecat]

netherlands are a good shout imo but id need to look further into it

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

They may have struggled against Romania in the qualifiers but who would u rather bump into later?

A Romania side with no real track record or a French and Italian side who has a history and reputation of doing the business when they aren't rated too highly.

I think Van Basten will rest his star players but will the other group coming in be a bad enough side that Romania can beat them?

They are still some of the top players from Holland.

Huntelaar etc getting a start might want to not lie down and get a name for themselves.

Who knows.

[stereoman]

On current form Spain would probably beat France or Italy (Spain would probably love to meet France in the quarter-finals to get revenge on 'em when they lost in the second round of the 2006 World Cup), and the Netherlands should be capable of beating either Sweden or Russia quite handily.

Spain would probably have a tougher time breaking down Romania which could be just dandy for the Netherlands if Romania were to 'soften' the Spaniards up for 'em.

The question remains...will the Netherlands deliberately lose to Romania? Depends on the line-up but yeah, I'd tend to agree with GaNgStA that Van Basten will probably give a few of the prominent players a rest but who knows?

Spain vs the Netherlands? It's the semi-final most neutrals watching probably want.

[AnothrSpacecat]

lets see a list of all the booked dutch players then, none of them will play for a start

[AnothrSpacecat]

A. Ooijer
N.d. Jong


nobody important then

[slick]

Romania are gonna win this as the odds suggest and I can't say i blame the Dutch for just rolling over here and putting out two of the main favourites, anybody would do the same rather than letting one of those sides come back to haunt you.

Pretty much nailed on if you ask me, Romanians to win 1 or 2 nil.

[AnothrSpacecat]

mixed emotions for me, wanted france and romania to progress, sadly france have my money and romania have my best wshes with the marus ncolae connection

maybe i should have romania carry my money to even myself out, or back france 90 minutes to get some back?

[Bigkegman]

Already mentioned but what would you do ?

Already qualified as group winners so you have got to play the reserves - why risk anything.

They will fancy there chances against Russia or Sweden so who would they like to face in the semis Spain/Romania/France/Italy ?

They have a chance to remove 2 of them tonight and that is only common sense as far as I'm concerned - no doubt the reserves will want to do well but it's not like it's the last qualifier and they need to impress.