Van der Sar keeps feet on ground

Netherlands captain Edwin van der Sar has said his team-mates will not get ahead of themselves following their 3-0 win over Italy as they prepare for their second Group C game against France in Berne.

Ideal start
The 37-year-old explained that despite getting their UEFA EURO 2008™ campaign off to the ideal start, the Oranje were just concentrating on their next match. "We were all happy about Monday's result," said Van der Sar. "But in the past two days we have forgotten about it and just started working hard again. We just finished our last training session and I am a bit tired, but we are looking forward to the France game."

Early days
The Manchester United FC goalkeeper was also cautious of the Netherlands being tagged as one of the tournament favourites so early in the competition. "We have only played one game so far. Now we start all over again, and hopefully we can perform so well again," said Van der Sar who became only the third player to appear in four UEFA European Championship finals in Monday's match. "It could become a very good tournament for us but we are still in the early stages. We still do not have anything to show for our efforts yet. It was the same with United this year when the press started saying we were going to win things early in the season."

Tough opponents
After beating Italy, the Dutch now face the side that lost to the Azzurri in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final and Van der Sar – who made two excellent saves from Andea Pirlo and Fabio Grosso when the score was sill at 2-0 against Italy – is fully aware of the threat posed by Les Bleus. "France are very strong opponents and they have proven that in the last decade," he added ahead of Friday's game at the Stade de Suisse. "They have reached finals, semi-finals and have won titles so it will just be another tough match. You always have to take the strength of your opponents into account and different teams offer different problems. We have to be careful of their fast forwards but hopefully we will be able to give the same effort we showed on Monday."