Ruud shocked by Dutch success
Sunday, June 15, 2008

Ruud van Nistelrooy admits he and his Holland colleagues are struggling to come to terms with their spectacular start to Euro 2008.

Two games into the tournament and Marco van Basten’s side have already ensured their path to the quarter finals. France - 4-1 on Friday - and Italy have both been disposed of in impressive fashion.

De Oranje laboured to their qualification for the tournament, finishing behind Romania – their final Group C opponents – but have made the rest of their peers sit up and take notice since arriving in Austria and Switzerland.

“We’re still trying to get our heads around this,” van Nistelrooy said. “We couldn’t expect this. We didn’t have the best of form in the whole qualification and before too.

“Now it all seems to fall into place. Now the confidence is there, it lifts the team and I think that makes a lot of difference."

Van Nistelrooy once again impressed in a lone striker role that enables the Dutch’s bounty of midfield talent to break forward.

“I try to do my job, I play with my back to goal a lot today and I think it worked out well,” the Real Madrid striker added on the BBC. “My first touch enabled me to find other players.”

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