FRANCE 98 – Netherlands-Yugoslavia – Ph. Cocu: “If we play like we did today, we can beat them all”

Frank DE BOER, captain (4) :

“I only saw two chances for YUGOSLAVIA to score: the goal and the penalty kick. In the quarter finals, I would prefer to play against the ENGLAND team, who have a game that we can control.”

Edwin VAN DER SAR (1) :

“Considering how we played, we deserved to win. It would have been a shame to draw. Luckily, we snatched a victory from them in the last few minutes. As for the penalty, Clarence SEEDORF (10), who plays with Predag MIJATOVIC (9) at Real Madrid and knows him well, knew that that he was going to hit hard. There are only strong teams left now in the competition and we’ll have to beat them. That’s why I don’t prefer either ARGENTINA or ENGLAND.”

Philip COCU (11) :

“The YUGOSLAVIANS were tired at the end of the game – but so were we – so we are happy that it didn’t go into extra time. But we believed we could make it and were convinced that we could score and win. As for the Yugoslavian goal, I was surprised by my opponent and got to the ball too late. On the whole, I think that we played better than the Yugoslavians. We were lucky, but that’s part of the game. If we play like we did today, we can beat them all.”

Ronald DE BOER (7) :

“As for the incident during the match, I don’t bear any grudges. You have to put these things behind you and start from scratch. I’m not vindictive. In any case, what was important for us tonight was to win. All our players feel good, we are a closely knit team and in my opinion, that counts for 80% of our victory.”