On the eve of their tie against Romania, Cody Gakpo said the Netherlands were approaching this as the start of a ‘new tournament.’

With their best performance of the tournament, Ronald Koeman’s side delivered with an utterly dominant Dutch display, inspired by Gakpo himself, who got a goal and an assist.

After scraping through as one of the four best third-placed sides, they will go into their first Euros quarter-final in 16 years, against Austria or Turkey on Saturday night in Berlin, brimming with confidence.

‘The win is important but we are Dutch and in Holland, we have to play well and play offensive football, said Koeman. ‘The whole performance was outstanding and that’s what we need to have a chance. This is the level and if we go down, we won’t reach the final,’ insisted the Dutch manager.

It was back in 1988 that a Dutch side including Koeman won the Euros – their only major trophy to date – just six miles away from the Allianz Arena at the now-abandoned Olympic Stadium.

So it was fitting that thousands of Dutch fans who descended on the Bavarian capital made that journey by foot via their fan march that has become one of the sights and sounds of this tournament.

Koeman called on his players to invoke the spirit of that 1988 squad and his men will now head to Berlin with a spring in their step, determined to make history.

He made three changes from their defeat to Austria with Denzel Dumfries, Steven Bergwijn and Xavi Simons all coming in.

For Edward Iordanescu’s Romania, this has already been a summer to remember but this was ultimately a step too far.

‘Today, we ended a great story,’ said Iordanescu. ‘My family needs me more than the national team. There is some sadness but we gave our all,’ added the Romanian manager. 

He made two changes with the wonderfully named Dennis Man coming in on the right flank which allowed the son of Gheorghe Hagi, Ianis, to start on the left flank.

Hagi Sr had predicted before the tournament that Romania could make the last four and the Tricolorii flew out of the blocks, buoyed on by a sea of yellow.

Behind the Dutch goal, a banner was unfurled by the Romanian fans saying ‘Dam Totul Pana La Final’ which translated to ‘I give everything until the final’ and so they did but against the run of play, the Dutch took the lead in the 20th minute. Simons found Gakpo down the left and the Liverpool man cut in onto his right foot before firing past Florin Nita at the near post.

‘He (Gakpo) is at a great level here and has been the most important player for us,’ admitted Koeman. 

The Romanian keeper should have done better but it took nothing away from the power of the strike as Gakpo got his third goal of the tournament, going level with Georges Mikautadze, Jamal Musiala and Ivan Schranz as joint top-scorer.

Now the Dutch were flowing and spraying the ball with confidence and it took a goal-saving tackle from Radu Dragusin to deny Memphis Depay a tap in after Dumfries had got in behind the Romanian backline.

Romania’s Vasile Mogos suffered a nasty blow and was forced off just before the break as the Dutch took control of the game and they really should have had a second in the 43rd minute. 

It was Dumfries again, this time dispossessing the substitute Bogdan Racovitan but Simons failed to convert from inside the box.

By now, the Dutch were all over Romania with a staggering ten corners in the first half alone but a rare Virgil Van Dijk error allowed Denis Dragus to get Romania’s only shot on target.

Koeman replaced Steven Bergwijn with Donyell Malen at half-time and it was more of the same as the Dutch peppered the Romanian goal but failed to get a second.

First, Tijani Reijnders went on a powering run but his effort was blocked denying him a goal of the tournament contender before Memphis Depay and Malen wasted golden opportunities.

Minutes later, Van Dijk’s header hit the post and then Gakpo’s strike was put behind for a corner by Nita.

On the hour mark, Gakpo thought he had put the game to bed but his goal was ruled out by VAR for offside.

By now, it was getting silly and when substitute Joey Veerman’s side-footed effort went inches wide after he was teed up by Simons, Koeman could hardly hide his disbelief.

It would have been a nice moment for Veerman after he was hooked off just 35 minutes into that defeat to Austria but any nerves were finally calmed with eight minutes to go when Gakpo did superbly to set up Malen, who steered into a free net.

On the touchline, Koeman lifted his arms and breathed a sigh of relief.

Behind the Dutch goal, the army of orange began to bounce and Malen put the icing on the cake finishing after a wonderful Dutch counter to make it three.

For Romania, that wait for a knockout round win since Pasadena in 1994 goes on but they can look back at this tournament with plenty of pride.