Kuyt: Netherlands must deliver top performance against Portugal

Jun 14, 2012 10:09:00 AM

The Fenerbahce-bound forward has called upon his team-mates to step up against the Seleccao in their final group game and qualify for the Euro 2012 quarter-finals

Dirk Kuyt has admitted that Netherlands were envisioning a slightly different start to their Euro 2012 campaign after his side slipped to a second consecutive defeat against arch-rivals Germany.

The World Cup finalists stand on the brink of elimination after a 2-1 loss to the Nationalelf followed a shock 1-0 reverse to unfancied Denmark, leaving them needing a two-goal victory over Portugal and a Danish defeat to Joachim Low's side on Sunday.

The Fenerbahce-bound forward has now admitted that morale is low in the Dutch camp, but urged his Oranje team-mates to deliver the goods against the Portuguese.

"Everyone was very disappointed afterwards," he told Algemeen Dagblad. "We had a different start to this tournament in mind.

"We must now deliver a top performance against Portugal. If Germany do their job, then we can still progress to the next round."

During both of their matches in the tournament to date, the Dutch squandered a number of chances, and Kuyt went on to ackknowledge that the misses played a part in their eventual losses.

"We got two good opportunities, but then their [Germany's] first chance was an instant goal. We really had to continue in the same footing, but we couldn't," he continued.

"We then went all out in our play, and Robin [van Persie] scored a beautiful goal. But they were dangerous on the counter. If we had been more compact, we could have helped each other more."

Netherlands and Portugal kick off in Kharkiv at 20:45CET on Sunday.

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