The Netherlands displayed their individual and collective superiority, capitalizing on the excellent form of players like Gakpo and Xavi Simons. As expected, their offensive versatility, both interior and exterior, led by a highly inspired Gakpo, overpowered a weak Romania. 

However, history suggests that the Netherlands might struggle defensively against teams with equal or superior offensive capabilities. Notably, many of their players have experience in Italian and English football. Only one player, Schouten from PSV Eindhoven, currently plays in the Netherlands, highlighting the team’s internationalization.

Can this impact on their overall performance and readiness for defensive tasks?
We’ll see!

Turkey, meanwhile, caused an upset by eliminating Austria, a team considered by many, including Joāo Palhinha, as one of the Tournament’s strongest. Despite Austria’s clear superiority on the field, Turkey’s bold offensive transitions and capitalization on Austria’s defensive lapses in set-pieces led to their victory.

This highlights the various ways to win in football, beyond fundamentalism in playstyle. 

As a reminder, Portugals’ Euro victory with three group stage draws and struggles in every match is a testament to this.

For the Quarterfinals, my predicted winners are:

• Spain
• Portugal
• Switzerland
• Netherlands

Now, it’s time to enjoy two days of rest and look forward to the matches on Friday!