Ruud leads Holland's historic win
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY was one of the stars of the show last night as Holland beat World Cup holders Italy for the first time in three decades to get their Euro 2008 campaign off to a flier.

Van Nistelrooy scored the first goal and others followed from Wesley Sneijder and Giovanni van Bronckhorst as the Dutch gave a performance that saw them promoted by the bookies to joint-second favourites for glory.

Holland boss Marco van Basten was delighted but for good friend Roberto Donadoni it was his worst defeat as Italy manager.

Van Basten said: "I am very proud of my team for beating the champions of the world. This is an historic win - I don't think we've ever beaten Italy 3-0 and we haven't beaten them at all since the 1978 World Cup.

"I am happy because we played as a team. We had to do without several players, including Arjen Robben, and the team reacted and showed a lot of spirit."

Italy are now in danger of crashing out of Euro 2008 at the first hurdle, as they did four years ago in Portugal.

Donadoni said: "We have to be optimistic and forget about this game.

"We need to bounce back in our next one against Romania, an encounter that has now become crucial.

"We will learn from our mistakes and make sure we don't repeat them. We had an off-day. For us the game started badly and finished terribly.

"Goal No.1 complicated our lives and I thought we were very naive at No.2. We reacted well in the second half but, despite having chances, it was not to be."

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