Netherlands U21’s tonight lost 5-4 to Portugal U21’s to send them out of the 2015 European Championships 7-4 on aggregate.
- By Michael Bell
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Last Thursday Netherlands U21’s lost the first leg of the play-offs 2-0 in Deventer, which meant they needed to win in Portugal by two clear goals to give them the chance of qualifying.
However a crazy opening 20 minutes where three goals were scored killed any realistic chance for Adrie Koster’s side to progress. Firstly Ruben Vezo backheeled a cross past Warner Hahn to give Portugal the lead on 13 minutes, before Heracles striker Wout Weghorst headed Netherlands level two minutes later.
Weghorst nearly gave Netherlands the lead, but his header shaved the crossbar, and in the 20th minute another cross wasn’t dealt with by the Dutch defence, and Ruben Neves headed in a corner to restore Portugal’s lead. However Netherlands would not give up and Terence Kongolo headed in a cross to make it 2-2 in first half injury time.
The end to end nature of the game continued in the second half, with Ricardo making it 3-2 on 50 minutes, before Nathan Ake bundled in a cross just after the hour to make it 3-3. Portugal’s Ricardo added his second, and Bernado Silva completed the Portugal rout with three minutes left, but there was still time for Ake to net from the spot to make it 5-4 at the end.
The loss is the fourth straight defeat for the U21’s since Adrie Koster took over, and his time as coach must surely now come to an end, with the Dutch out of not only next summer’s European Championships, but also the 2016 Olympics.
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