Van Marwijk hails squad’s belief

(GSM) – Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk has praised the belief is showing at the World Cup as the Oranje feature in their first final in the competition since 1978. Holland beat Uruguay 3-2 on Tuesday and will play either Spain or Germany on Sunday for the final.

But with Netherlands set to play in the final at July 11, van Marwijk is proud of his side’s run in the tournament.

He said: “It is hard to comprehend, such a small country, but not a small footballing country, reaching the World Cup final.

“We started two years ago with this squad and said from the beginning that you have to believe in it but that has been quite a process to get to where we are now.”

Still, Van Marwijk is wary of early celebrations and wants the squad to maintain focus ahead of the final.

“It wasn’t easy but finally the whole team started to believe that it is possible to win this title,” he added.

“But like as happened too often in the past, when we play beautiful football, we have to be careful we aren’t satisfied too early.

“Against Uruguay we started well but then we lost control of the midfield but managed to regain it.

“I set that straight at half-time and after that we were a bit differently organised and started to play better and then we had the individual qualities to settle it.

“The relief was enormous and wonderful but we are not done yet, we have still got one match to play.”