Netherlands move up the gears to reach Euro last eight

Cody Gakpo broke the deadlock in the 20th minute and substitute Donyell Malen scored two late goals to send the Dutch to their first quarterfinal in the tournament since 2008.

The Netherlands had missed a plethora of earlier opportunities to add to the lead and captain Virgil van Dijk also hit the woodwork. It was nevertheless a much-improved display compared to the  disappointing group stage performance, which ended in a 3-2 loss to Austria.

Ronald Koeman's side could get a quick rematch in Berlin on Saturday if Austria beat Turkey in the final round-of-16 match later in the day.

"I think we played a good game and showed a great reaction from the last one," Gakpo said. "Especially after the last game we needed a reaction and today was a good step in the right direction. We talked a lot about the aggression, the intensity and defending like a team."

It was Gakpo's third goal of the tournament, making him joint top scorer along with Germany's Jamal Musiala, Georges Mikautadze of Georgia and Ivan Schranz of Slovakia.

Romania had dominated possession until Gakpo's goal, but never really tested Netherlands goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. Instead the opener came when Xavi Simons surged forward before finding Gakpo on the left. The Liverpool forward cut inside the blue-haired Andrei Rațiu and fired into the near bottom corner.

Gakpo ran to the physiotherapist after his goal and he explained his celebration: "He told me yesterday, 'you're gonna score the first goal,' and 'I said, if I do that, I'll come to you,' and that's what I did."

He  had a second-half goal chalked off for offside, but turned provider seven minutes from time as he managed to just keep the ball in play, under pressure from Radu Drăgușin, and prodded it back from the byline for Malen to poke home.

And the Dutch capped a dominant performance in stoppage time when Simons released Malen for a surging run from the halfway line before slotting past Florin Niță.