Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands scored his third goal of the European Championship and Donyell Malen added two more late on as the Dutch rebounded with a vibrant performance to defeat Romania 3-0 in their round of 16 match on Tuesday. The Dutch were chastised by their media and supporters for a terrible defensive performance in their last group game, a 3-2 loss to Austria, but they remained controlled and in charge as they advanced to the Euro quarterfinals for the first time since 2008.

Romania dominated possession throughout the first quarter of an hour before the Netherlands gradually gained control of the game. They took the lead after 20 minutes when player of the match Gakpo hammered a low shot past keeper Florin Nita’s near post, and Malen’s late double helped the Netherlands set up a quarter-final against Turkey in Berlin on July 7, Sunday. Turkey’s Merih Demiral scored a double, guiding his team to a 2-1 victory over Austria.

Gakpo was a nuisance all night and set up Malen’s first goal in the 83rd minute, keeping the ball in play on the touchline and knocking it across the box for an easy tap-in. Malen scored his second goal in stoppage time after collecting the ball in midfield, dribbling into the penalty area, and firing beyond Nita, indicating that the Dutch have begun to click in the competition. Romania had only a few chances in the game and never seemed like a genuine threat as the Netherlands dominated possession and waited for openings to move forward.

The Dutch enjoyed two-thirds of the possession and nearly five times more chances with 24 attempts in the game, highlighting their dominance as Virgil van Dijk hit the post with a header and Gakpo had a second effort ruled out for offside.

This was the answer we had to our last performance – good game, good goals, we played good football. Of course, we could do better but a good showing after the last game. A good step in that next direction. We felt we were in control even though they were a dangerous opponent, Gakpo Said.

I thought there were a lot of good things we did. The team realized that the last game was really bad in all aspects and so they gave out a strong message. We played well in the whole game, except the first 10 minutes when there was a lot of pressure, the Dutch manager Ronald Koeman said.