Advocaat: I respect but not fear Larsson

Holland coach Dick Advocaat is not afraid that former nemesis Henrik Larsson will return to haunt him when the Dutch take on Sweden in the Euro 2004 quarter-finals on Saturday night.

In the recently-published book about his time as Rangers boss, The Advocaat Years, he cited the former Celtic striker as the main reason for the Hoops’ dominance over the Ibrox side in the latter part of his tenure in Govan.

However, Advocaat claims that while he still respects the Swedish striker, he will not be singling Larsson out for any special attention.

He said: “As I’ve said before I have a big admiration for how Larsson plays but I don’t fear him.

“We know he is quality and we will have to keep an eye on him because he is a goalscorer but we have some good players as well.

“I think we are good enough to beat them but they will be thinking the same thing and I would rate our chances as 50/50.”

Holland qualified for the knock-out stages thanks to the Czechs’ 2-1 win over Germany and their own 3-0 success against Latvia.

Advocaat denies feeling the pressure in recent days but admitted the tension was high in the second half of the game against Latvia, when qualification was still in the balance.