Monday 7 September 2015 12:34, UK
The Netherlands were plunged into crisis on Sunday following a 3-0 defeat to Turkey which left their Euro 2016 qualification hopes hanging by a thread and the national press declaring it as the end of an era.
Dutch coach Danny Blind said his side had "shot themselves in the foot" with individual errors in the loss at the Torku Arena in Konya which followed their humbling 1-0 home defeat to Iceland on Thursday.
The Netherlands are floundering in fourth place in Group A and need to overhaul a two-point deficit on third placed Turkey with two games to play in October to have any chance of reaching the Euro 2016 finals via the November play-offs.
It is a significant fall for the Netherlands after finishing third at the World Cup in Brazil last year, when under the management of now-Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal.
The front page of Monday's Algemeen Daglad carried the headline "We don't count anymore", while the Volkskrant said there was a "blatant lack of quality, fitness, speed, teamwork and courage" displayed by Blind's team.
De Telegraaf simply ran with the headline: 'Staggering'.
Inside, they rued that "only a miracle would bring the Oranje to the European Championships."
Netherlands midfielder Wesley Sneijder was not sure what exactly went wrong.
"Maybe it's bad luck, maybe it's a lack of confidence," the Galatasaray player said.
"We let two easy goals in against us that had to do purely with a lack of concentration and focus."
Robin van Persie, dumped as captain by Blind for the Iceland game but restored for the clash with Turkey after Arjen Robben was ruled out by injury, did not hide his feelings.
"The whole qualifying tournament has been very difficult. We no longer have it in our own hands. I feel terrible, really terrible," he said.
The Dutch were on the back foot from the start of the preliminaries as Guus Hiddink's first competitive game back as coach saw them lose in Prague to the Czech Republic, followed the next month by defeat in Iceland.
Continuing poor performance and mounting criticism saw Hiddink resign after less than a year in charge with Blind promoted up from assistant.
"You let yourself enormously down if you give goals away so easily," said Blind. "We had a few good chances of our own before half-time. In total maybe more than Turkey but we did not rewards ourselves."
The Dutch next face Kazakhstan away on October 10 and finish their group campaign at home to the already-qualified Czech Republic three days later.
They, however, will have more than one eye on Turkey's progress at the same time in their last two Group A games in Prague and at home to Iceland.
