Robin van Persie devastated as Dutch face failure to qualify for Euro 2016 after Turkey basting
Danny Blind's side are beaten 3-0 in Konya to leave fate out of their hands
The Netherlands’ hopes of making the Euro 2016 finals hung by a thread on Sunday after last year’s World Cup semi-finalists were convincingly downed 3-0 by a well-organised Turkey.
In front of 40,000 Turkish supporters creating a hostile atmosphere in the packed-out Konya arena, Turkey combined cohesion with physicality as the Dutch fell short in every department.
An early strike by Oguzhan Ozyakup of Besiktas was followed by a second from Barcelona’s Arda Turan and then a killer third from Burak Yilmaz.
With the Czech Republic clinching qualification on Sunday and Iceland taking the second automatic qualification spot going in Group A, Turkey and the Netherlands are in a straight fight for third and likely entry into the play-offs for the finals in France.
“Our fate is no longer in our own hands. I feel really terrible,” a devastated Van Persie said.
He emphasised the team still had a chance of going through if they won their last two games – away to Kazakhstan and at home to the Czechs – and Turkey slipped up. “We must carry on.”