Netherlands-Romania

UEFA EURO 2008 GROUP C
Date: Tue 17 June KO: 1945 BST Venue: Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, Berne

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The Netherlands are likely to leave out Andre Ooijer and Nigel de Jong, who are each a booking away from a suspension.

John Heitinga and Demy de Zeeuw are likely to deputise, while Arjen Robben is expected to start his first match after two substitute appearances.

Romania's Mirel Radoi is ruled out of the tournament with a head injury, while defender Dorin Goian is banned.

Cristian Chivu could drop back to cover Goian, with Nicolae Dica and Banel Nicolita coming into midfield.

Romania beat the Netherlands 1-0 in qualifying for Euro 2008 and held them to a goalless draw in Rotterdam.

A win in Berne will put Romania into the quarter-finals and match their best ever result in a major tournament.

The Dutch are trying to keep up their record of making the quarter-finals in every European Championship since they won it in 1988.

Both Heitinga and De Zeeuw will be looking to play their way into coach Marco van Basten's thoughts for the next stage.

According to Van Basten Real Madrid winger Robben is "raring to go and eager" to start against the Romania.

Van Basten is expected to rest at least five of the starting line-up which beat 2006 World Cup finalists France 4-1 on Friday.

Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is set to replace Ruud van Nistelrooy up front, while Robin van Persie and Ibrahim Afellay could replace midfielders Real Madrid's Wesley Sneijder and Hamburg's Rafael Van der Vaart.


BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-heads

Netherlands and Romania have met each other on 10 occasions with the Dutch winning six times and Romania once. Romania have only scored twice in those 10 meetings.

Both countries met in the qualifying tournament for Euro 2008. The match in the Netherlands ended in a 0-0 draw and Romania won the home leg 1-0 on 13 October 2007.

Head to head records and significant meetings

Team facts - Netherlands

Already qualified as group winners.

Now reached the knock-out stages in six consecutive European Championship editions, which is a competition record, and won 16 European Championship matches which equals Germany's record.

Boast six different goal scorers in Euro 2008. The tournament record is seven and is held by three countries: Czech Republic (1996), Italy (2000) and France (2000).

Most distinct goal scorers at a European Championship finals
Beaten two former World Champions in the group phase. The last country to do so was Portugal in 2000 when they beat England and Germany. Romania finished as runners-up in that group.

In the previous editions of the European Championship only five countries won all three group matches. France in 1984 are the only country to win the tournament after winning the first three group matches.

Team facts - Romania

Romania will qualify for the quarter-finals with a win over the Netherlands. If Romania draw, they only qualify if Italy and France draw.

With a 0-0 draw at France - Italy, Romania can lose by a three goal margin (except 3-0) and still qualify. With a draw at France - Italy involving goals (1-1, 2-2, ...) and a defeat against Netherlands, Romania are out of the tournament.

Player facts - Netherlands

Nigel de Jong and Andre Ooijer will miss the quarter-final match if they receive a yellow card.

In the second group match against France, Edwin van der Sar broke the Dutch record for matches played (26) at the European Championship and World Cup combined.

Midfielder Wesley Sneijder is one of four players to score in each of the first two group matches. Forwards Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Lukas Podolski (Germany) and David Villa (Spain) are the others.

Player facts - Romania

Dorin Goian is suspended for this match. Goian scored the only goal when these teams last met in a European Championship qualifier on 13 October 2007.

Daniel Niculae, Cristian Chivu, Adrian Mutu and Cosmin Contra will miss a possible quarter-final match if they receive a yellow card.

Adrian Mutu has scored 29 international goals. He needs one goal to equal second placed Iulu Bodola. Georghe Hagi is Romania's top scorer with 35 goals.

Miscellaneous Info

In the European Champions Cup final in 1989, current Romania coach Victor Piturca was part of the Steaua Bucharest team that lost to 0-4 to AC Milan. Current Dutch coach Marco van Basten scored twice in that final.