Van der Vaart berates Dutch performance

Portugal have beaten Netherlands 2-1 in the Group B decider to progress through to the last eight of Euro 2012.

Rafael van der Vaart, instilled as Oranje captain in the place of the injured Mark van Bommel, scored the opener for Bert van Marwijk’s men with an astute curling effort in the first-half.

However, Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Paulo Bento’s men to victory with a goal each side of the interval to leave Netherlands losing all three of their competition games.

Van der Vaart has admitted that his side’s performance was not good enough, and that Portugal deserved to go through.

“We were not good enough this tournament,” the Tottenham man told reporters after the game, reported by Goal.com.

“It was just a very poor performance by us. That’s why we didn’t deserve to go through.

“You know it’s going to be a tough match. After our goal they were the better team. We were very poor. It’s very disappointing, especially for the Dutch fans.

“After the loss against Denmark, you know it’s going to be difficult, because you have to face two teams. Now we have to start all over again,” he conceded.

Portugal will now play Czech Republic in the knockout rounds, who topped Group A.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]