Van Persie defends Hiddink: He's a fantastic coach

The Oranje skipper has moved to defend his boss, who has lost three of his first four games in charge of the World Cup semi-finalists

Netherlands skipper Robin van Persie has defended under-fire coach Guus Hiddink, despite his side's 2-0 loss to Iceland on Monday.

Since the 67-year-old took the reins from Louis van Gaal this summer, he has lost three of his four matches in charge, including two Euro 2016 qualifiers.

However, the Manchester United striker has rejected suggestions that the change of coach has had a negative impact on the team who came third at the World Cup earlier this year.

"That's not fair to Guus Hiddink and his staff," he told NOS.

"He's a fantastic coach. We worked hard to get here in as good shape as possible. Iceland were looking for our mistakes.

"We made too many errors in possession and weren't strong enough in duels.

"I still have hope. Nothing is decided yet, but there's a lot of work to do. We'll do anything. We don't give up."

Van Persie also lamented his side's concession of a goal from a set piece, despite practising on defending corners and free kicks in the build-up to the game.

"This loss is very painful. We spoke about set plays a lot in the last few days and ball went in like that...

"In the last 15 minutes we tried some long balls but they didn't work out. Normally we could be dangerous like that, but tonight we weren't."