Flying Dutch thrash world champions Italy - June 10, 2008

Netherlands romped to a stunning 3-0 win over world champions Italy in the first clash of the heavyweights at the tournament in the Stade de Suisse yesterday.

A controversial goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy, a superbly executed volley by birthday boy Wesley Sneijder and a breakaway third from the head of Giovanni van Bronckhorst late in the game produced the first major upset of this year's finals.

"To win 3-0 against Italy, a team with so much experience and quality in their team, we didn't expect that," said Netherlands coach Marco van Basten. "It was a truly good team performance from the whole team."

The win was the first by the Dutch over Italy since the 1978 World Cup finals and put them top of the group after France and Romania drew 0-0 in the day's first game in Zurich.

It was the biggest margin of victory by Netherlands over Italy as they consigned their devastated opponents to their worst loss at a European Championship finals.

Italy's shocked coach Roberto Donadoni, who had presided over their heaviest tournament defeat since the 4-1 loss to Brazil in the 1970 World Cup final, just wanted to look ahead.

"I don't want to say that it's the worst Italy performance of my time in charge," he said. "We let in two goals by making mistakes. We haven't started well but we must look forward."

The match in Berne turned in five dramatic minutes in the first half when Marco van Basten's side scored twice, although the first should not have been allowed to stand.

Striker Van Nistelrooy looked clearly offside when he turned in a shot from Sneijder, who was celebrating his 24th birthday, after 26 minutes.

Despite vehement Italian protests to the linesman, Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt ignored their calls to the delight of the vast swathes of orange-clad Dutch fans in the stadium.

Later there was confusion over whether Italy defender Christian Panucci played the Dutch striker onside after the fullback fell and went off the field of play behind the byline. Austrian referees' commission chairman Gerhard Kapl was quoted on Web site www.sportal.at saying: "The injured player behind the goal counts as a player on the field and therefore it was not offside".

Donadoni took the decision calmly despite the controversy saying: "There is no sense in thinking now whether it was offside or not. I accept it... There's no point crying about it. If he (the referee) made a mistake... he's human."

The Dutch had more to cheer five minutes later when they doubled their lead with the best goal of the tournament so far.

It began when a corner by Andrea Pirlo at the other end of the field took a deflection off a Dutch player before being cleared off the line by Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

He then ran 50 metres to continue the move after Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart had taken it out of the Dutch defence.

Van Bronckhorst sent a huge cross-field pass to Dirk Kuyt who headed the ball back for Sneijder to volley home brilliantly between Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon and his near post.

Italy had chances and Luca Toni should have given them the lead after twelve minutes but headed wide, while Antonio Di Natale's shot was smothered by Edwin van der Sar before the break. They must now improve quickly if they are to reach the last eight.