Holland coach Marco Van Basten was left delighted after his side's emphatic 3-0 win over world champions Italy on Monday. "You could say that I'm proud. I'm proud that we won against the world champions, and at the way we played football tonight, scoring three goals and playing until the last minute," said the EURO 1988 winner. "It was a historic result because in the past we have never beaten Italy 3-0 – this was a serious performance." Van Basten played down talks of a 'new era' of Dutch football, following the Oranje's vintage display at Stade de Suisse. "We cannot talk of a new era, we have won one game – the first in our pool. I'm very happy to beat a big opponent but we have only taken one step," he added. "If you have the spirit we had tonight you're able to do nice things, but there are a lot of other good teams here."
Donadoni defiant Don Optimistic Van Basten's former Milan mate Roberto Donadoni remained confident his side can get over the embarrassing start. "If we're not optimistic we should go off on holiday instead of taking the flight to Zurich. The players need to put this defeat behind them, understand the mistakes we've made," he said. "When we went 1-0 down things got complicated and for the second we were not quick enough to recover our positions after the corner. "We looked strong physically and created a few chances but it wasn't our night. I think the Netherlands played as well as we expected them to." Donadoni believes that France's draw with Romania was a positive result for the Azzurri ahead of next Friday's clash with the Romanians. "Obviously in the light of this result, we're happy that France and Romania drew. It's to our advantage but also shows that Romania are a team who'll make it difficult for us," he added.
