Netherlands have booked an important victory in the European Championship qualifiers. Oranje came from behind to defeat Germany 4-2 after an excellent second half.
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In March, Netherlands lost 3-2 to their bitter rivals in their second Euro qualifier and they headed to Hamburg looking for revenge. Ronald Koeman decided to start with Quincy Promes and Ryan Babel on either side of Memphis Depay, while Denzel Dumfries remained first-choice right-back.
Netherlands dominated possession from the start but in the ninth minute, Germany scored the opener on the counter attack. Lukas Klostermann forced Jasper Cillessen into a good save but Serge Gnabry followed up to net on the rebound.
After the opener, Netherlands continued to have plenty of possession but had very little creativity and struggled to create chances. Matthijs de Ligt was closest to the equaliser with a header.
Early in the second half, Georginio Wijnaldum went close but was denied by Manuel Neuer. Koeman then acted by making a double change. Donyell Malen came on for his Oranje debut along with Davy Propper, while Marten de Roon and Denzel Dumfries went off.
The changes worked wonders and moments later it was 1-1. A Babel cross found Frenkie de Jong in the middle and he calmly fired past Neuer.
In the 66th minute, Netherlands took the lead. Neuer made a good save from a Virgil van Dijk header, but when Memphis put the ball across goal, Jonathan Tah could only divert it into his own net.
Netherlands were on top but in the 72nd minute, Germany were awarded a soft penalty for a handball by De Ligt. The ball took a deflection and hit the Juventus defender on the arm but the decision stood. Toni Kroos made no mistake from the spot and made it 2-2.
The equaliser didn’t stop Netherlands from pushing forward and in the 79th minute, Memphis played an excellent pass through to Wijnaldum, who found Malen in the middle and the PSV forward fired past Neuer to mark his debut with a huge goal.
In the last minute, Netherlands made the victory safe as Memphis countered before swinging an excellent pass into the box for Wijnaldum to fire in a fourth.
The victory is massive for Netherlands, who move onto six points from three games and they can now think about topping the group once again. On Monday, Netherlands travel to Estonia.
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Congratulations to Ronald Koeman and his boys. Well played Oranje.
That was Wijnaldum best game ever for the Oranje. Although the Dutch won handily, tactically they have to make a choice. In the first half they were sending crosses in the box with no one to receive them; this where Weghorst can be an option better De Jong because he is also a better passer. The second half goals came on a transition which suits the available talent. Germany gave away space which facilitated the counter-attacks. This is it. If they are going to play the typical Dutch possession game they need Weghorst as a striker. The tactical alternative given what we saw in the second half would be to defend deep which would be like taking candy from a baby for the current players.
Fantastic team spirit from the Dutch. They really weathered the storm late in the first half and early 2nd. De Ligt and Van Dijk each with a massive intervention at a time when the game could have gotten away from them.
Wijnaldum’s runs in the 2nd half were incredibly effective, great performance from him along with Memphis and De Jong, and good subs by Koeman as well
While a loss wouldn’t have been debilitating, this win puts them in a massively stronger position, both for qualifying and for team confidence. Bravo!
While VAR should be used by UEFA for qualifiers, I won’t point the finger at the lack thereof for the handball. The referee had a perfect view of what happened. No referee should see what he saw and think, “this is a penalty”. Period.
I was impressed to see Oranje not allow that bull**** to affect them. They reacted the right way and fought for the win. Many teams would have folded and settled for a draw.
Thanks Football Oranje for your immediate game report, Your reporting team stays so current.