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Peacock and Stekelenburg pleased with progress

John Peacock praised England's improvement against Turkey, while the Netherlands' Maarten Stekelenburg was happy despite his team "falling apart a bit" v Malta.

England are through to the semi-finals with a match to spare
England are through to the semi-finals with a match to spare ©Domenic Aquilina

Though England manager John Peacock and Netherlands boss Maarten Stekelenburg were particularly pleased after their teams secured early qualification, all the Group A coaches were keen to draw on the positives after Monday's fixtures.

England 4-1 Turkey
John Peacock, England manager

I thought we were better today [than against Malta]. We went about the job really well and were very professional – the players did exactly what we asked of them. Turkey came in with a game plan of trying to get it to the two strikers. We had an idea they might do that so we were ready for it. Unfortunately we had one minute of madness with the penalty and the goal, so that was a disappointment. We could have been 3-0 up by then.

[Early qualification] gives us a chance to look at different options and gives us a little bit more recovery time if we need it. We'll be trying to beat the Dutch and win the group, no doubt. We demand high standards of this group. There is talent here and they are keen to learn and listen – they're very coachable and just a good group to work with.

Hakan Tecimer, Turkey coach
I think the match was in the balance until the red card. We were playing well and thinking clearly until then. After that, the game took on a different course. After having a man sent off we had to take some risks and when we conceded the second goal we took even more risks. We just couldn't play the way we wanted to.

We have played very well at certain moments in both the first match and second match. At those moments we put our ideas into practice on the pitch. However, in both games we made simple mistakes. You don't really have a chance if you make these kind of errors. I want our players to keep enjoying the tournament until the end.

Malta celebrate one of their goals
Malta celebrate one of their goals©Domenic Aquilina

Malta 2-5 Netherlands
Sergio Soldano, Malta coach

I'm very proud of the way my players performed, though there is a slightly bad taste in my mouth about the way we missed the chance to make it 4-3; then they went straight down the other end and, too easily, made it 5-2. It hurts because we had to work so hard to create chances and then didn't take them, while we let them take theirs far too easily.

Today was a very open game, it really went to and fro. We weren't going to sit back and defend against Holland today – we had to play an open, attacking game.  Even though we sometimes paid heavily for that, we can't always say: 'Oh, Malta are a small nation so we have to play defensively'. If we did that, we'd never really know what we're capable of achieving.

Maarten Stekelenburg, Netherlands coach
We're not sure how bad [Anthony Berenstein's] injury is, so we need to take an X-ray in the hospital. We hope it's alright but the early signs are not too positive. Qualifying after two games is a big compliment to the boys. It was hard work today – we looked quite good in the first half but we fell apart a little bit in the second. That's something for us to analyse and look at ahead of the next game. We tried to force one or two extra goals and gave them too much space, but it's still a good result and that's what counts.

I felt at the start of the second half that we were a little bit too relaxed and not paying enough attention. I changed the formation to try and get them to lift their game. It's always difficult when you play games like this so we must be pleased with the result and look at how we can improve in the future. I think we just need to speed things up a bit and recognise the situation a bit faster. We lost against England in Portugal in a friendly this year so maybe this will be a little opportunity for some revenge!

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