Netherlands' man of the match Wesley Sneijder stressed that the Dutch must not get carried away after they beat world champions Italy 3-0 in their opening match yesterday.

"It was a great result and the fans may celebrate but we still have nothing," Sneijder told reporters. "Our goal still is to reach and win the final and therefore we need to stay calm."

The Dutch gave an excellent performance and were on top before the break thanks to a controversial goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy after 26 minutes with Sneijder adding the second five minutes later following a perfectly fashioned counter-attack.

"Of course, I stood on the edge of offside but I just followed the line of Sneijder's shot and then hoped that there still was a defender behind me," said Van Nistelrooy. "But I never saw that someone was laying behind the byline."

Fullback Christian Panucci played Van Nistelrooy onside, even though the Italian was off the pitch at the time, and the Dutchman could not believe his luck as he celebrated.

"It was a pleasure to be part of this team, everything we wanted to show just worked out," said the striker after the Group C victory, which was their biggest ever over Italy.

Handing the Italians their worst loss at a major tournament since the World Cup final of 1970 was the result of more than just a fine performance by some of the key Dutch players.

Everything worked according to coach Marco van Basten's master plan, which was all the confirmation the team needed about the merits of his tactical strategy.

"It was unbelievable to beat the world champions like this," said Rafael van der Vaart, who gave Italy playmaker Andrea Pirlo hardly any space to show his qualities. "We knew that we had to pressurise them but the way we did it was really fantastic."

After the break Italy tried everything to fight their way back into the match but behind a well-organised Dutch defence they found outstanding keeper Edwin van der Sar in their way.

The skipper, who won his 126th cap, made some remarkable saves and it was his clearance after a Pirlo freekick that started the counter-attack that resulted in the third goal.

"It is becoming our strength to break out fast after we win the ball" said Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who headed home their third to cap a glorious night for Netherlands.