Netherlands defeated Latvia 2-0 on Saturday to book their first win of the World Cup qualifying campaign.
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After the poor 4-2 loss against Turkey in midweek, Netherlands looked to bounce back against Latvia to ease the growing pressure on Frank de Boer. The Oranje coach made three changes to his starting eleven with Denzel Dumfries, Davy Klaassen and Luuk de Jong all starting.
The game was being played in front of 5000 Netherlands fans inside the Johan Cruijff ArenA as an experiment into getting fans safely back into stadiums.
Netherlands camped in the Latvia half from the start but an opening goal didn’t come in the opening stages with Davy Klaassen having a shot cleared off the line before also heading against the bar, while Memphis put some shots from range over the bar.
Finally, in the 32nd minute, Steven Berghuis cut in from the right and curled a lovely strike into the net to register his first international goal.
It was almost 2-0 before the break but Memphis curled wide before Luuk de Jong put a close-range header against the bar.
The second-half began much like the first with Netherlands squandering chance after chance until Luuk de Jong finally headed in a corner to make it 2-0 in the 69th minute.
De Boer then made changes with Ryan Gravenberch, Donny van de Beek, Ryan Babel, and Calvin Stengs all coming on, but there was to be no further goals. Memphis had a frustrating evening and couldn’t score after a strong run, while Van de Beek put a shot wide.
Netherlands get a win but it is possibly not enough to ease the growing pressure on the side. In the group’s other games, Turkey defeated Norway, while Montenegro saw off Gibraltar.
Should have been 3 or 4 VS 0. Low efficiency.
They need to play Wout. No one wants to score.. Not even Memphis.
FDB has to go.
Holland with all that talent but no chemistry.
Get Peter Bosz
If this is how they are going to play against Latvia I can imagine how they will play against teams like Germany or Italy.
Another pathetic performance. De Boer is clueless, we are going nowhere with him and with players like Babel, Klaassen, Luuk de Jong or Blind. They are not good enough for higl level football as they showed that abroad in Spain or England but for de Boer they are like Messi. No wonder we barely won against poor Latvia. This is just hard to watch. Worst thing is they will now beat Gibraltar and for KNVB and some supporters it will be great achievement. De Boer stays. And then World Cup is not for us again.
should have been more than 2 we were unlucky but also not lethal in front of goal games like this players like huntelaar and van persie used to score at least 3 luuk de jong must be hungry for goals he did okay but i dont feel him dangerous
another important point the positioning was poor i saw some players hitting each other and not aware of there position sometimes i felt like a chaos during the game FDB must work on this and also be aware of the counters another team would smashed us with counters
anyway a good win i hope to win also the next match and then we will see what happens in the euros i think FDB wont last after the euros
The good:
1- 3 points
2- nice shot by berghuis
3- hit the post twice could’ve been 4
The bad:
1- side to side play and ton of possession with low output
2- saving subs
3- not giving Donny time with Frenkie
4- Ryan Babel
5- no finishing skills
6- boring tactics against an inferior team
7- Turkey scored 3, so GD is at +5
8- more of the same complaints regarding player selection
With this performance Holland will struggle against Turkey or Montenegro even against Norway. I think Euro 2020 will be a desaster and it is most probably that we will miss another world cup.
It is just so awful to watch. I keep repeating myself in these posts but goodness me, there is nothing in FDB’s teams: slow, unimaginative, predictable, deliberate and stubborn. No chance the team qualifies for the WC. Bosz to the rescue.
Before the match I said if we can’t win by 3 goals…KNVB must sack FDB and hire Bosz immediately.
3 cheers to the men in Orange. All the best to coach Frank de Boer and his footballers in the challenges ahead.