Sharjah24 - AFP: After putting some weak performances from the group stage behind them to defeat the United States and easily advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday, star striker Cody Gakpo stated, "The Netherlands are gaining in confidence at the World Cup and getting better with every game."
The Dutch secured a last-eight spot with a 3-1 victory which was set up by a wonderful opening goal, finished by Memphis Depay after a 20-pass move.
"We're growing in the tournament, we're improving every game and this was another step," said Gakpo, who has been strongly linked with a move to the Premier League after the tournament.
"We have a great team spirit, we really fought for each other today, together. The spirit is really good.
"We came here with one goal and that's to become world champions and we have to win every game and that's what we're trying to do."
Prior to facing the Americans they had come in for criticism for their group-stage displays after needing two late goals to beat Senegal before a fortunate draw with Ecuador and a laboured 2-0 win over hosts Qatar.
"In the first few games they (critics) were right, we didn't play our best football," Manchester City defender Nathan Ake told reporters.
"But we got the points and we qualified first.
"But we knew we had to play better and today we showed much more what we can do in different phases.
"In some situations we had to defend a little bit more but we know that we're very dangerous on the counter-attack.
"We haven't shown that too much in the first few games but today we showed that."
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