Ireland no match for Dutch masters and now eye top five

Ireland 0 Holland 4

A disappointing draw against Spain on Tuesday wrecked that plan, and Spain's subsequent 6-0 thrashing of the French yesterday meant Ireland needed at least a draw against the mighty Dutch to progress.

Having never beaten Holland in competition, let alone drawn with them, that was a big ask for Riet Kuper's side too big as it turned out. Ireland now face Scotland tomorrow as they strive for a top five finish.

After Holland's decisive victory hey now face England in the semi-final, while Germany take on Spain with a Germany-Holland final on Saturday looking very likely.

But, in their final pool game last night, the Irish were out-classed, but not swamped, as many had feared. According to Kuper, the Dutch played much better against the Irish than in their other two Pool A games against France and Spain.

"I don't know what their coach Marc Lammers said to them after those two matches, but it certainly had the desired effect as his team played with a sharpness and aggression we had not seen from them in this competition so far.

"The scoreline might look bad, but in truth it could have been a lot higher because they missed a lot of chances and we were not really able to put them under pressure at all," she said.

Ireland's captain, Linsey McVicker, concurred: "We started brightly and we even had them on the back foot a little bit in the early stages, but they were too strong for us really and there was no way we were going to get the draw we needed."

Almost from the off, the Dutch looked stronger from both a physical and talent point of view. The Irish gave their all, but this was a bridge too far for them and while the likes of McVicker, Linda Caulfield, Jill Orbinson (making her 100th appearance), Eimear Cregan and goalie Angela Platt fought throughout, Holland always had the upper hand.

The writing was on the wall from the eighth minute when the Dutch scored from their first short corner. Maartje Pauman lashed the ball past a stunned Irish defence and from then there was only going to be one result.

It took another 20 minutes to get their second, courtesy of some lovely wing play by Kim Lammers, who set up Saskia Fuchs to finish.

While Ireland were willing and able to go forward, they never looked like scoring, while the Dutch always looked dangerous.

It remained 2-0 at the break, but eight minutes into the second-half they were three up thanks to a Minke Smabers penalty after Platt was adjudged to have been too aggressive in trying to stop another Dutch attack.

The fourth came seven minutes later when Pauman got her second.

Ireland tried everything they knew to at least save face and score against the tournament favourites, but they lacked the guile and the strength to break the Dutch down. So, now it is on to Scotland after today's rest day and McVicker is predicting a tough encounter against a side she knows only too well.

"It seems like I've played against Scotland 50 times of the 150 I've played for Ireland, so we know them really well and it will be a tight encounter because of that. It will be a dogged battle, but I would like to think we can win and go for that fifth place," she said

IRELAND: Platt, Connery, McKeever, O'Brien, Smyth, Carey, Burke, Caulfield, Orbinson, McVicker, McDonough. Rolling subs: Cregan, McKean, Stewart, Casey, Parkhill.

HOLLAND: De Roever, Moreira, Snoeks, Scheepstra, Karres, Smabers, Booij, Schopman, De Bruijn, Hoog, Paumen. Rolling subs: Van As, Lammers, Voskamp, Fuchs, Goderie.