Advocaat considers De Boer

Bouma doubt
After losing 3-2 to the Czech Republic on Sunday having led by two goals early on, the Netherlands need to win or at least achieve a score draw in Braga and hope the Group D leaders beat Germany. However, John Heitinga is already suspended due to a sending-off against the Czechs and Advocaat revealed that defender Wilfred Bouma is a doubt.

Logical replacement
Advocaat said: "Bouma has an achilles tendon injury. He has been suffering from that for some time and it always takes him some time to recover. Frank de Boer is the most logical replacement for Bouma although we also have the option to pull back [Phillip] Cocu to the defence from the midfield. [Michael] Reiziger is the most logical replacement for Heitinga.

'Same team'
"As far as possible, the same team that played against the Czechs will also play against Latvia. We have to go on in the way we played against the Czechs - we have to try to continue like that. So we have to take care to get a good result ourselves and hope that the Czechs do their duty."

Tricky situation
The coach said he realised that with qualification secure, the Czech Republic could already have half an eye on the quarter-finals. "If the Czechs give their best players some rest it is our own fault," Advocaat said. "We would have probably done the same thing if we were in their situation. It is a tricky situation, but I think not qualifying for the quarter-finals would not be a disaster. That is too strong a word for it. But it will certainly not be good for Dutch football."