The Netherlands got in the mood for the European Championship round of 16 with a clear win against North Macedonia.
Bondscoach Frank de Boer's team won 3-0 (1-0) against the newcomer to the tournament in Amsterdam on Monday evening, celebrating their third win in their third game.
The Elftal had already been confirmed as group winners.
The European champions from 1988 will now face one of the four best thirds in the group on Sunday in Budapest.
North Macedonia, however, remained without a point at its EM premiere.
In front of 16,000 spectators in the Amsterdam Arena, Memphis Depay gave the Netherlands the lead before the break (24th minute). Georginio Wijnaldum, who moved from Liverpool FC to Paris Saint-Germain, increased the lead after the break with two goals (51st, 58th). With the North Macedonians, football legend Goran Pandev gave an emotional farewell to the national team.
Although it was no longer about anything for both teams, a lively game developed.
As previously announced, De Boer had changed his team to two positions.
Donyell Malen and Ryan Gravenberch started instead of Wout Weghorst from Wolfsburg and Marten de Roon, who was already in yellow.
Otherwise, de Boer relied on his best team to keep them in rhythm.
In 2008, the then coach Marco van Basten exchanged the entire team in the last game - shortly afterwards, the Netherlands were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Russia.
Above all, Malen, who slipped into the team for Weghorst, used his probationary opportunity.
The PSV Eindhoven attacker, who was also courted by Borussia Dortmund, provided a lot of momentum and recommended himself for further missions.
The first noticeable scenes, however, had the North Macedonians, in which captain Pandev played his last international match.
The Dutch gave a farewell present before the game.
Oranje captain Wijnaldum presented the 37-year-old striker with an Elftal jersey with the number 122. Pandev played his 122nd international match against the Netherlands.
He had announced before the game that he wanted to end his career in the national team after the encounter.
His teammates were apparently willing to bid their football icon a worthy farewell.
But first Ivan Trickovski was unlucky that he was just offside when his goal hit (9th), then Aleksandar Trajkovski only hit the post (22nd).
As lightly as the Dutch acted on the defensive, they showed their great quality on the offensive. Especially Depay showed a very strong performance a few days after his perfectly made move to FC Barcelona. The reward: A few minutes after the North Macedonians hit the post, the striker put the Elftal in the lead thanks to a pass from Malen. After that, the Oranje team could have increased their lead before the break, but missed some good chances.
After the break, the Dutch did better. Against the now clearly declining North Macedonians, the Oranje team used the available rooms for some nice combinations. Wijnaldum completed two of them within seven minutes. The game was over, but it still had an emotional moment to offer. When Pandev was substituted in the 68th minute, the entire North Macedonian team formed a line to say goodbye to their football legend.