Netherlands coach Andries Jonker insists Danielle van de Donk’s Women’s World Cup campaign is not over despite her being ruled out of the quarter-final against Spain.
Van de Donk picked up her second yellow card for the tournament after the Dutch withstood a spirited South Africa side in a 2-0 round-of-16 win at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
The second booking means the Lyon midfielder will miss Friday’s meeting with Spain in Wellington.
Van de Donk looked crestfallen when replaced in the second half, but Jonker is adamant she need not feel down.
- Watch: Game highlights
“We have come here with the conviction that we can beat everybody,” Jonker said.
“We have this conviction. It’s not the last game for Danielle. It’s very disappointing she got a yellow card, but we can’t change it.
“Danielle has very specific qualities that we really need and we will miss those qualities.
“But we’ve got a lot of other good midfielders and that’s what we’ll need to work out over the next few days.”
The Dutch took the lead after just nine minutes when Jill Roord headed her fourth goal of the tournament, but it didn’t knock the wind out of South Africa’s sails.
Banyana Banyana have been one of the tournament’s feel-good stories and the 40, 233 Sydney crowd took a collective gasp whenever they burst forward.
South Africa knocked out Italy with a dramatic group stage win and its ability to pierce forward on the counter attack caused the Netherlands problems.
On another day, star striker Thembi Kgatlana could have scored a hat-trick but Dutch goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar pulled off a string of excellent saves to deny the South Africa captain.
The Netherlands flashed a warning sign when Lieke Martens had a goal chalked off for the barest of offsides early into the second half before disaster struck in the 68th minute.
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South African goalkeeper Kaylin Swart failed to cleanly gather a Lineth Beerensteyn shot with the ball slipping through her hands and into the back of the net.
Swart hit the ground in disgust knowing her mistake had punched her side’s ticket home and sent the Dutch through to the quarter-finals.
“Nobody has a perfect game and unfortunately that happened, but she kept us in the game,” South Africa coach Desiree Ellis said.
“I think all of South Africa should be proud of this team. We played a very good side that didn’t expect to finish top of their group.
“We’re disappointed of course, but we’re proud.”