Men in orange fizz at last

"Sex, drugs and orange goals" read the banner draped by Dutch fans close to one of the scoreboards at the De Kuip stadium last night and while the nation's nearby capital is renowned the world over for the availability of the first two items it was here in Rotterdam that Frank Rijkaard's team started to deliver on the third.

An impressive performance by The Netherlands ensured a very comfortable win and the three points earned produced the first confirmed losers of these championships: Denmark and the Czech Republic are now both certain to travel home late next week, while France and The Netherlands move on to the last eight from Group D.

If the Netherlands can continue to play like this once they embark on the knockout stages then there may be no stopping Rijkaard's men, who last night struggled for a while to find the scoring touch but then turned in a second-half display worthy of would-be champions.

As they had done on Sunday, the Dutch started positively and the Danish defence must have been a little startled by the pace of the game as it developed around them. Patrick Kluivert again occupied the lone striker's role for the locals but this time there were three rather than two bodies around him with Marc Overmars, Boudewijn Zenden and the floating Dennis Bergkamp all allowed an evening virtually free of defensive duties in order to concentrate better on breaking their opponents down.

During those early exchanges, however, the Danes weren't for breaking. In the circumstances, and particularly after the pummeling they'd taken from France, it might have been understandable had Michael Schjonberg and co simply crumbled under the pressure but instead they competed ferociously, consistently denying the opposition the time or space to line up a clean strike on goal.

Only twice during the first period did the 40,000 Dutch fans in the crowd of 51,000 come close to have something worth celebrating. When Zenden's close-range shot was blocked by Peter Schmeichel it fell invitingly for Overmars who, even under pressure, must have expected to hit the target.

Then, only a few moments later, Bergkamp slotted a fine low ball through the centre and Edgar Davids - giving a far more impressive performance than on Sunday - turned on the pace and had an attempt to chip the goalkeeper smothered. Bergkamp went very close with the follow up.

But even if they had conceded territorial advantage, the Danes still managed to create more chances early on through Allan Nielsen, Jon Dahl Tomasson and, most memorably, Thomas Gravesen, who clipped the crossbar from 20 yards. It would have been an astonishing lead.

It was an unlikely fairytale and one that went up in a puff of smoke not long after the two sides came back for the second half. Finally finding their stride, the Dutch took the lead in the 57th minute at the end of the best move of the game, with Davids winning the ball in defence, feeding it swiftly upfield to Bergkamp, whose low drive was spilled by Schmeichel. Kluivert was on hand and the Barcelona striker made no mistake.

With Overmars replaced and Zenden back on his preferred left wing shortly afterwards, the hosts took an even firmer grip on things and goal number two wasn't far away. A long cross-field ball found Zenden in space and while his control was impressive, so good was the cross that followed that Ronald de Boer had only to sidefoot home from a few yards. The young winger then went one better, scoring the third himself after Michael Reiziger's burst of pace had torn the Danes asunder. Denmark were in disarray and morale slumped still further five minutes later when Schjonberg sent a penalty wide after Edwin Van Der Sar had taken down Ebbe Sand.

With the game dead and buried the locals were clearly enjoying themselves nd perhaps the uncertainty of Group C where Spain and Yugoslavia both slipped up in the opening round of matches deterred Rijkaard from pressing his men to look for the fourth goal that would have given them the edge over France ahead of the meeting between the two sides next Wednesday night.

By that point in the night it seemed only a matter of pushing forward and waiting for the gaps to appear. On the other hand, though, there's more to life than scoring goals.

Substitutes: Denmark - Tofting for Nielsen (60 mins), Helveg for Schjonberg (81 mins). Netherlands - R de Boer for Overmars (60 mins); Winter for Bergkamp (75 mins); Westerveld for Van Der Sar (89 mins).