A Dutch defeat to Romania on Tuesday night would have knocked the Azzurri out of the competition along with France, whatever the result of their meeting in Zurich.

However, Van Basten's side were a class above the Romanians at Bern's Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, running out convincing 2-0 winners to hand Italy, 2-0 victors over Les Bleus, a lifeline.

Van Basten is not too concerned about the prospect of a difficult last-four clash in which Roberto Donadoni's side would be seeking revenge for their 3-0 mauling by the Oranje in the Swiss capital last week.

"If we face Italy again we'll be in the semi-finals," said Van Basten after second-half goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie saw off Romania.

"I think we'll just prepare ourselves now for the quarter-finals on Saturday."

Donadoni's position would have been under intense scrutiny had Italy been knocked out at the group stage, and Van Basten is pleased his former AC Milan team-mate's side have made it to the knockout phase.

"I know him very well, he's a friend of mine," said the Dutch boss. "In a situation like this it's not good to have contact with each other (in the build-up).

"But in the end I am happy that he has gone through - happy for him and for Italy."

Van Basten made nine changes to his starting line-up from the team which hammered France 4-1 in their previous outing, with only Orlando Engelaar and Khalid Boulahrouz retained.

And the Oranje coach was pleased to see the stand-ins impress while he rested several key players.

"We had two difficult matches against Italy and France, which were mentally and physically very demanding," he said.

"We are facing a quarter-final now and hopefully we will have to play more matches which will require more mental and physical exertions.

"All the players who were on the pitch created excellent impressions. We have 23 players who are all international players for the Dutch team and I'm very satisfied with this.

"I'm also satisfied with the fact we handled these three matches so properly and so well."

In particular, Van Basten was delighted with Tuesday's professional performance, with some pundits having predicted a Romania win to eliminate both 2006 World Cup finalists.

"I'm happy that in a game like this we played seriously. We did our job with a lot of other players than in the first two matches," he said.

"Now the group phase is over, the knockout stage starts with the quarter-finals and with that comes different emotions so we have to see how we react to that."

Next up for Holland is a last-eight clash against either Russia or Sweden at Basle's St Jakob-Park on Saturday, and Van Basten admits things could hardly be going better in his last campaign at the helm.

"I'm very happy that we have a good group with good skills," said the 43-year-old, who will take over as Ajax head coach after Euro 2008.

"We all feel well together, working well, laughing with each other. The atmosphere is very good. If we continue like his, I don't know where it will end."

Romania coach Victor Piturca thought the fact Italy were winning against France in the simultaneous kick-off in Zurich had an impact on his players on Tuesday.

Andrea Pirlo opened the scoring for the Azzurri from the penalty spot after 25 minutes at Letzigrund Stadion and Daniele de Rossi made the points safe just after the hour mark.

Piturca had intended to ignore events in Zurich but later admitted the scoreline had filtered through to his players.

"The players were not supposed to know what the result in Zurich was," said the coach. "Personally, I was not interested.

"Had it been a draw between France and Italy, it could have been a good thing for us, but I was only interested in my team.

"We (should have been) only interested in our match and not in the other match.

"Unfortunately, that was not the case."

Piturca was therefore left to reflect on a largely positive campaign in Switzerland, while regretting the fact his side felt the effects of their efforts in their opening two draws with France and Italy.

"Our concentration from the first matches played a part," he said.

"That definitely had an influence in the third game.

"We lacked cohesion. We no longer played the way we played in the first two matches."

Romania now turn their attentions to the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, which begin against Lithuania in September and see them once again grouped with Les Bleus.

And Piturca will take his side into that campaign buoyed by the events of the past 10 days.

"We should analyse what's happened here," he said. "The experience gained here will be very important.

"Some players didn't have such experience before.

"Life goes on. This tournament is over for us and we have to think about the World Cup."

ends