Netherlands seal progress with Romania success

Tonny Trindade de Vilhena's early goal was enough to ensure the Netherlands booked a UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-final place as Group B winners with a game to spare.

Having beaten Germany 2-0 on Tuesday, Albert Stuivenberg's side knew another win would ensure progress and they seldom looked in trouble after Trindade de Vilhena's strike on eight minutes. Romania, held 1-1 by the Czech Republic in their opener, are a point behind that side in third. They must hope the Czechs do not beat the Netherlands on Monday and themselves defeat Germany to make sure of a last-four slot.

The Netherlands finished strongly against Germany and kept up that momentum with a blistering start here. A Trindade de Vilhena corner had led to his side's opener on Tuesday and another nearly did so on seven minutes, Annas Achahbar stealing in to head over. No matter – on the next Netherlands attack Nick de Bondt surged up the left and his low centre was touched on by Achahbar for Feyenoord colleague Trindade de Vilhena to smash in.

Romania soon settled but were nearly caught out again when De Bondt dived in to head a Daan Disveld cross just wide. Romania goalkeeper Constantin Brănescu dived to deny Memphis Depay following a Karim Rekik touch-back, and although Adrian Văsâi's side were breaking out of defence on the odd occasion they were rarely giving the Netherlands backline much cause for concern.

After the break Romania continued to be frustrated and Depay was not far away with a strike on a Dutch foray forward. There were few such chances at the other end and the Netherlands know they will travel to Novi Sad for the semi-finals on Thursday, as well as to Mexico for the FIFA U-17 World Cup next month.