Liverpool midfielder Smicer warned his countrymen about the danger posed by RVN:
"He is the man we are going to have to watch very closely. I think 95 per cent of his goals come from inside the box. He’s lethal around there — as he showed against Germany with that strike. It was barely a half-chance. It’s the kind of goal he specialises in."
And Dietmar Hamann said of van Nistelrooy:
"He is a world-class finisher. We conceded possession in the corner to allow the cross that brought their equaliser, that was the first problem and should not have happened. And when the ball gets into the six- yard box about the worst man possible for us to be on the end of it was Ruud, even with a defender tightly on him. It is very hard to defend against him in such a situation. I have witnessed him scoring goals like that in the Premiership for the last three years, he is very difficult to stop.
"He is probably one of the best at what he does in the game. Our two centre-halves are very experienced and they had barely given him a chance all game, but then I know from seeing so much of him that he only needs that one chance to change a game."