Netherlands end their trio of friendlies with a trip to Austria on Saturday. Kick off at 7.30pm. 

janssen neth poAfter the pitiful 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland last Friday, Netherlands raised their game to beat Poland 2-1 on Wednesday, and the Oranje players will head for their summer holidays after a tricky tie against Austria on Saturday.

Danny Blind is expecting a tough test in Vienna, with the Oranje boss rating Austria higher than both the Irish and Poland sides they have already faced.

He told his press conference, “We want to close it tomorrow in a good way, but that is certainly not just to do here. Austria won nine out of ten qualifiers and drew one. That says enough, with players who play in the Premier League and the Bundesliga. ”

For Austria the match is their final warm up before they get their Euro 2016 campaign underway against Hungary a week on Tuesday. Their coach Marcelo Koller will be hoping for an improved performance from his players after they struggled to a 2-1 win over Malta on Tuesday.

Team News

Danny Blind stated he will not make huge changes to the side that beat Poland, with Kevin Strootman expected to come back into the starting line-up. Daley Blind will miss the tie through injury, while Jetro Willems is a doubt after sustaining a knock in training. Tonny Vilhena is still hoping to make his debut, but will not start.

Possible Netherlands XI: Cillessen, Tete, van Aanholt, Bruma, van Dijk, Strootman, Bazoer, Wijnaldum, Promes, Berghuis, Janssen

Austria confirmed their Euro squad earlier this week with a number of recognisable names involved including Bayern Munich defender/midfielder David Alaba, former Twente striker Marc Janko and Stoke City forward Marko Arnautovic.

Possible Austria line-up: Ozcan, Klein, Fuchs, Hinteregger, Dragovic, Alaba, Baumgartlinger, Arnautovic, Junuzovic, Harnik, Janko

Previous meetings

The two nations have met on 17 occasions with Netherlands winning seven, losing six and drawing four. The Oranje have got the better of the Austrians in all five of their recent meetings, with the last coming in 2011 as Netherlands triumphed 3-1 in a friendly. Austria’s last win came in 1990 with a 3-2 victory.




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