Netherlands welcomed Czech Republic to Amsterdam for their final Euro 2016 qualifier on Wednesday needing to win and hope for a favour from Iceland to snatch third position in Group A from Turkey.
It was quite simple for Netherlands – they needed to record all three points and hope that Turkey lost at home to Iceland in order to secure a playoff position for next summer's tournament in France.
It was the visitors that opened the scoring after 24 minutes, however, with 23-year-old full-back Pavel Kaderabek finding a route past Jeroen Zoet after breaking into the Dutch penalty area and it got worse for Danny Blind's side in the 35th minute when Josef Sural converted from close range for 2-0.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 43rd minute when Marek Suchy was given his marching orders for a last-man challenge on Memphis Depay. Czech Republic made sure of all the points in the 66th minute, however, when Robin van Persie headed past his own goalkeeper.
Netherlands had one back in the 70th minute through Klaas Jan Huntelaar, before Van Persie scored at the right end 13 minutes later, but the visitors held on to record all three points.
It is the first time that Netherlands have not made it to the finals of a European Championship since 1984.
Read how it all unfolded in Sports Mole's minute-by-minute live commentary of the action below.
NED: Zoet; Tete, Bruma, Van Dijk, Riedewald; Wijnaldum, Blind, Sneijder; Memphis, Huntelaar, El Ghazi
CZECH: Cech; Kaderabek, Suchy, Kadlec, Gebre Selassie; Darida, Plasil, Pavelka; Skalak, Necid, Sural
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The Netherlands back five have just 21 international caps between them. Youthful side tonight. pic.twitter.com/upzCyyLdkR
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 13, 2015
Holland 1998, what a team. pic.twitter.com/xZYCeCuxrk
— Soccer St. (@SoccerSt_) October 13, 2015