They needed to avoid defeat to Iceland, in case the Dutch beat the Czechs, and had an outside hope of finishing as the third-placed team with the best record in the nine qualifying groups if they won and Kazakhstan also beat Latvia.
Advertisement
Behind him, the ever-flagging Wesley Sneijder will try and create but it all seems a bit tired and uninspiring.
Should Netherlands fate be sealed on Tuesday and they miss out on a first European Championships since 1984 then a likely inquest at the KNVB will take place to determine how it has gone so wrong for last year’s World Cup semi-finalists.
But it was too little, too late, and as news filtered through that Turkey had snatched a late victory against Iceland, the Dutch knew their time was finally up.
And Dutch hopes of turning the game around were given a boost two minutes before the interval as last man Suchy was shown a red card for bringing down Depay.
With Selcuk Inan earning Turkey a late 1-0 victory over Iceland in Konya the Turks came out with 18 points on third place in Group A and qualified as best number three directly for Euro 2016.
The Oranje threatened in the first minute when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar sent a through ball for Anwar El-Ghazi, who cut back on to his left foot before shooting at goal, only to see his effort well saved by Petr Cech.
Just 11 minutes later, Josef Sural scored all alone by beating Kenny Tete to receive a bounced throw-in from Tomas Necid. The ball was kicked across right to Van Persie, who headed the ball towards his own goal and right past Zoet.
Bosnia-Herzegovina fought back from a goal down to beat Cyprus 3-2 in their final Euro 2016 qualifier in Nicosia to finish third in Group B and clinch a play-off place. Turkey and Netherlands had 15 and 13 points respectively entering Tuesday’s action.
Van Persie was replaced as captain by Arjen Robben, after Danny Blind replaced Guus Hiddink as coach in July.
Advertisement
Norway had started the day two points clear of Croatia but were beaten 2-1 by already-qualified Italy in Rome, despite Alexander Tettey of Norwich City putting the visitors ahead. The game was played at Astana Arena in Kazakhstan, after the initial 30 minutes Netherlands broke the deadlock with Wijnaldum in the 33 minute.
