Their 3-2 home loss to 10-man Czech Republic on Tuesday evening ensured the Oranje finished behind Pavel Vrba’s side, as well as minnows Iceland and Turkey.
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However, with the finishing line in sight, Norway collapsed, conceding two late goals to Alessandro Florenzi after 73 minutes and Graziano Pelle eight minutes from time, to lose 2-1 and allow Croatia to overtake them.
Czech Republic were reduced to 10 men just before the halftime break when Marek Suchy was shown a straight red card for a foul on Memphis, who was through on goal.
“We didn’t make it and it is very disappointing for the players, for me and for the whole of the Netherlands”, said Blind. Much as the Netherlands rose after their inability to reach either the 1982 or 1986 World Cups or the intervening European Championship – they proceeded to win the 1988 European title in a style most majestically embodied by Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten.
Danny Blind’s side did pull a goal back three minutes later when Klaas Jan Huntelaar headed home Wesley Sneijder’s cross at the near post. Instead, struggling Robin van Persie, who had only come on as a substitute, made it 3-0 for the visitors after heading into his own net.
The Dutch, who finished third at the World Cup only a year ago, needed to win in Amsterdam to have any chance of making the playoffs for France after the remnants of the disastrous Guus Hiddink tenure.
There was also drama in Group H, where Italy fought back from a goal down to beat Norway 2-1 and clinch top spot with Croatia leap-frogging the Norwegians into second with a 1-0 win over Malta.
Meanwhile, Turkey beat Iceland 1-0 to secure the third place.
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The CzechRepublic have 19 points in the 9 games they have played, they have qualified for the final stages of the UEFA Euro 2016 in France and can play their match against Netherlands easily on their minds. Then, they had a match with Kazakhstan and won by 3-1 at home. Italy topped the group while Norway dropped down into the play-off spot. The Czech Republic have already qualified though and can not be blamed for not over extending their starters. Sneidjer, Blind, De Pay will play the creative provider role but the dutch as a whole have struggled during this qualifying campaign and hence the reason they are likely to miss out.
