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Glum mood, long odds weigh on Dutch at Euro 2012
Posted Sunday, June 17, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

The Netherlands is ready to gamble that it can beat Portugal by two goals and keep Cristiano Ronaldo quiet in the teams' last group match at the European Championship on Sunday.

Needing a German victory over Denmark to have even a glimmer of hope of advancing, Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk says on the eve of the decisive Group B match that caution has little use at this stage.

With his team needing to win by at least a two-goal margin, Van Marwijk said: ''Our way of playing will be totally based on that.''

Van Marwijk is expected to pair top strikers Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie after losing the first two games of the tournament to Denmark and Germany starting with a single striker. At the same time, he must find a way to keep Portugal's forwards at bay.

As the Dutch coach readily acknowledged: ''We are clutching at our last straw.''

''A draw should be enough for them,'' he said. ''And they have Ronaldo and Nani - and nine other players.''

A group stage exit would be the worst result in over a decade for the Dutch since they failed to reach the 2002 World Cup finals.

What makes that prospect worse are the high hopes they had before the tournament. Two years after losing the World Cup final in extra time to Spain, the Dutch felt they were ready to reap the rewards of having stars like Van Persie, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder all coming into Euro 2012 unburdened by injury.

By Saturday, though, the mood was almost as dark as the black jerseys they will wear Sunday.

And even the statistics don't look good. In all, the Netherlands has defeated Portugal just once in their past 10 meetings, way back in 1991. And that was only 1-0.

Standings
    Rank Team W/D/L Pts

    Cities & Stadiums

    The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments

    Year Winners Runner-up Third place
    2008SpainGermanyRussia / Turkey
    2004GreecePortugalNetherlands / Czech Republic
    2000FranceItalyNetherlands / Portugal
    1996GermanyCzech RepublicFrance / England
    1992DenmarkGermanyNetherlands / Sweden
    1988NetherlandsSoviet UnionItaly / West Germany
    1984FranceSpainDenmark / Portugal
    1980West GermanyBelgiumCzechoslovakia
    1976CzechoslovakiaWest GermanyNetherlands
    1972West GermanySoviet UnionBelgium
    1968ItalyYugoslaviaEngland
    1964SpainSoviet UnionHungary
    1960Soviet UnionYugoslaviaCzechoslovakia