The Netherlands beat Italy, one of the Championship favourites, 3-0 in their Euro 2008 opening match in what’s been dubbed a historic victory over the current World Champions.

The goals came from Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and throughout the duration of the match, Holland looked the far superior team and the ball seemed to be magnetised to the Dutch teams feet.

The opening first came in the 26th minute when Van Nistelrooy slipped the ball into the net in a controversial goal with Van Nistelrooy looking to be off-side.  After the match UEFA agreed with the referees decision and the goal is now officially upheld.

Sneijder made it 2-0 only five minutes later with a clean taken effort which saw the Dutch supporters erupt in a flurry of orange in the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf in Berne.

Van Bronckhorst scored with a header to seal the fate of the Italian team and give them the first 2 points of Group C.  Later a sluggish game between France and Romania saw the other points shared as the two teams drew 0-0.

Italy kept the pressure on for the remainder of the match and had a few on target shots that, in most games would have been a goal, but Van der Sarwas excellent in goal and stopped a few cracking shots.

Although the Italians kept the pressure on, they were really not up to the skills of the Netherlands on the night and were never really in contention to claw back 3 goals, especially with the Dutch team looking for number 4.

Certainly a memorable night for any Dutch supporter and one that will go down in the teams history books.