World champion humiliated

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-11  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

DUTCH fans and commentators celebrated yesterday after the Netherlands beat world champion Italy 3-0 to launch the perfect start to Euro 2008.

"What a dream game! What heroes! With the whole of Europe watching, the Dutch team beat world champions Italy in style," wrote top circulation De Telegraaf under the headline "Bellissimo Orange!!"

The Volkskrant daily agreed: "The Dutch team opened the 'Group of Death' with a fantastic performance. For once, all superlatives are allowed: masterful, magnificent."

Almost seven million people in this football-crazy nation of 16 million watched the game and shouts could be heard across the Dutch capital Amsterdam each time the side scored.

Cheering fans clad in the national color orange poured out of bars and on to the streets to celebrate after the match.

"The Netherlands is decisively back on the international stage," the Algemeen Dagblad daily wrote. "That's how you win the European title ... A hungry and harmonious Dutch side made the reigning world champions really sit up and take note."

Even the sober Het Financieele Dagblad could not resist putting the game on the front page: "Stylish start", it wrote.

"It is a perfect job," Netherlands midfielder Wesley Sneijder said.

"It was a historic feat. This was Italy, the world champion," Netherlands coach Marco van Basten said. "It's only the very first step. We have to see if we are able to repeat such a game against France and against Romania."

Despite having to face the headlines in the Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy still lives for another day.

"We've got to be optimistic," coach Roberto Donadoni said. "That's one of the basics of our profession. Otherwise, there would be no reason to take the next plane to Zurich."

Still, the stunning defeat left World Cup goalkeeping hero Gianluigi Buffon with only one option.