Holland missed out on a place at Euro 2016 as former Arsenal and Manchester United striker Robin van Persie netted this own goal in their 3-2 defeat to Czech Republic on Tuesday night.
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The Dutch were 2-0 down at half time after goals from Pavel Kaderabek and Josef Sural gave the visitors a commanding lead in Amsterdam.
However, they were handed a lifeline as Marek Suchy was sent off shortly before the break, and that gave Danny Blind’s side the lift that they needed in order to get back into contention.
Nevertheless, his team needed to win on Tuesday to have any chance of leapfrogging Turkey and claiming the playoff berth in Group A for Euro 2016, and so their defeat ultimately ended their hopes.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Van Persie combined to set up a frantic final few minutes to give the Oranje hope, but it was too little too late from the hosts who saw their hopes crash in the Dutch capital.
Holland ended in fourth place with 13 points, while Turkey’s win over Iceland secured their place in next summer’s tournament as the one of the best third-placed teams in qualifying as they finished the campaign with 18 points.
Blind’s position will naturally come under scrutiny after this result and failure, as it was also in stark contrast to their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign in which they scored 37 goals while this time round they only managed 17.
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