Rossi: Our approach merited recognition

"I'm satisfied with the result and our performance too, but there is a little bitterness in me, because we conceded a goal from a set-piece and we'd wanted to avoid those kinds of situations," Rossi admitted. "I congratulate the boys, because today we were able to make our plans a reality and in many cases we were outstandlingly shrewd, so I take my cap off to everyone. This attitude, this will to win, this strength in challenges is worthy of recognition, because this is how we were able to take the game to a higher-ranked opponent. Although I never like to send my team on to the pitch with such defensive tactics, this was how we needed to play against such a high-quality opponent. We have to play well against Bosnia (on Monday) but while today we mainly defended, we'll need to do more than this in three days' time if we are to win the match or, if we don't succeed in that, then at least to gain a point."

Rossi's Dutch counterpart Ronald Koeman, meanwhile, was dissatisfied with his team's first-half display, but was glad they claimed a point after van Dijk's dismissal had reduced the Netherlands to ten men:

"Overall, a draw can be considered a fair result, because although we dominated the game, we created few chances and couldn't get our attacking players on the ball enough. The Hungarians battled hard, so we'd have needed more finesse in order to have created more goalscoring opportunities against them. After the red card, we made the most of our possibilities, so I can't reproach my players for anything, but all in all, I think we need to win these kinds of matches," Koeman concluded.