Netherlands have their first win of the World Cup qualifying campaign after a 4-1 victory over Belarus in Rotterdam.
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On their return to De Kuip, Netherlands began the game looking like a side determined to net early and created several chances in the first ten minutes with Kevin Strootman shooting wide, while Vincent Janssen saw two good efforts fail to result in a goal.
Finally after fifteen minutes the opener came and it was Quincy Promes who got it with a low strike into the bottom corner after Belarus failed to clear a cross. His first goal for the national team was quickly followed by his second on the half hour mark with a volley from the edge of the box. In between the two strikes Virgil van Dijk also had the ball in the net, but his goal was wrongly ruled out for offside.
Going forward Netherlands looked constantly dangerous but at the back there was the usual uncertainty and before the break Belarus were gifted opportunities to get themselves back in the game but both Mikhail Gordeychuk and Ivan Maevski couldn’t capitalise on errors by Virgil van Dijk and Jeffrey Bruma. A minute into the second half Belarus did punish the Dutch defence with Aleksei Rios firing past Maarten Stekelenburg from close range after meeting Sergey Kornilenko’s cross.
Any nerves inside the stadium were quickly quashed as Davy Klaassen restored the two goal lead when he followed up on the rebound after Janssen’s strike came back off the post. Janssen then sealed the victory after the hour mark with a superb solo goal, picking the ball up on the half-way line before racing towards goal and smashing a strike into the top corner from the edge of the box.
Wijnaldum then hit the post late on as Netherlands comfortably saw out the rest of the game and registered their first three points on route to Russia. The victory moves Netherlands onto four points, level with Sweden and France who also won on Friday. France visit Amsterdam on Monday in a crucial tie.
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My million dollar question is: why is de vrij on the bench????? Why one of the best defenders in europe didn’t start the game???
Exactly. Made no sense whatsoever. De Vrij’s reading of the game and ability to snuff out danger is MILES ahead of Bruma’s.
There was a 20 minute stretch in the middle of this match with a series of defensive blunders, and Bruma was at the center of it all. If Belarus had better finishing they could have made things very uncomfortable for the Dutch there.
Hopefully Blind has a look at the tape and makes that switch. It’s hard enough to beat France even when you’ve got your best personnel out there.
Good result, if sneijder can’t start against france either propper or memphis should start
Saw the match live on TV as usual. On paper holland have everything against tiny belarus and as predicted we won by a big score but conceded one. Surprised by the decision for stekelenburg to be no.1 as was hoping zoet to be. and the big surprise was de vrij was not included. Guess maybe Blind don’t need to field the strongest starting 11 against belarus. I would expect a different line up against the french. Glad to see karsdorp did well on home turf and on his first cap debut. Surely potentially future first choice RB. Janssen wonderful goal was my favourite as it shows that he deserve to be an ideal RVP replacement though he missed out few great chances. Noticed that strootman doesn’t move forward often as he did before, perhaps wijnaldum was instructed to do so as his preferred role.
Sneijder continues to be the senior leading the team and he did well before the injury. Personally I love to see holland use attacking wingers in their game plan but limited choice force blind not to. Against the French, not only a 3 points is needed but a much motivated morale booster win is required apart from avenging the loss before during Cruryff in rememberance match
I think the difference of Bruma over de Vrij was the fact that de Vrij hasn’t had much time to play with van Dijk. Now of course give them time to play together and it might be the dream pairing at the back. So although he may be seemingly the best defender Europe, if he has had no time to mesh why risk it?
The reason I think you risk it is because Bruma had a hand in all 4 decent chances Belarus had in this match. 3 at the end of the first half, and then he was turned far to easily and allowed the pass for the goal. Although Strootman was at fault for the goal against Sweden, Bruma had a hand in the buildup there too.
It’s easy to gloss over these things when you are picking up points, but it doesn’t change the fact that Bruma doesn’t have half the defensive intelligence that De Vrij has. If he starts on Monday I fear that Gameiro and Griezmann could have a field day.
Good point. And I don’t think you risk it for France and although not a lot more time has passed it should be enough to become more acquainted with each other. It also gave France no chance to scout a van Dijk-de Vrij partnership! Blind, van Dijk, de Vrij and even Veltman all have the defensive sixth sense and are really good positionally and they are smart about it!
I think steckelnberg was the right choice for the n. 1 because zoet and psv are not playing that well and there arnt many other options
I like Stekelenburg and feel he’s gotten a bit of a raw deal in the EPL until Koeman brought him to Everton. He’s a vet and doesn’t have any problem coming into the team, I still like Cillessen though and think that, although not in the first team at Barça, he is still playing for Barça! He’s there for a reason and not because he had a few bad games! He’s training with the best in the world!