A costly error from Maarten Stekelenburg gifted France a 1-0 win over Netherlands in the crucial World Cup qualifier in Amsterdam.
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Danny Blind decided to stick with the 4-3-3 formation that worked against Belarus last week, putting Davy Propper in the side to replace Wesley Sneijder and pushing Davy Klaassen out wide. The coach hoped his side could dominate the ball and pick holes in the French defence.
However, the opposite happened as France controlled the game from the start and they created chances early on with Kevin Gameiro forcing Maarten Stekelenburg into a save after finding himself left alone in the box, while Virgil van Dijk had to make an excellent block to deny the Atletico Madrid striker. At the other end, Netherlands, who lost Quincy Promes through injury had their best chances from set pieces and a Memphis Depay free kick was just touched away from van Dijk. who would have prodded into the empty net.
After the win against Belarus, Blind lamented his defence for giving away too many chances, but he stuck with the same back five against France. On 30 minutes his decision not to make a change proved fatal as Jeffrey Bruma sloppily gave away possession in his half, which led to Paul Pogba picking the ball up unchallenged 30 yards out. The midfielder strode forward before unleashing a strike at goal which nestled into the net despite Stekelenburg getting a hand to it. Replays showed the Everton goalkeeper failed to move quickly enough across his goal to make what should have been a routine save.
Vincent Janssen was isolated for most of the first half but he was presented with an excellent chance after latching onto a poor backpass by Dmitri Payet. However, the striker took too long to shoot and his strike was eventually charged down by Koscielny, who looked to divert the ball away with his hand, but the referee denied the hosts a penalty. Most would now point out that the refusal for the penalty was the third decision to go against the Netherlands so far in this World Cup campaign after the wrongly disallowed goals against both Sweden and Belarus.
Shortly after the break Janssen made another chance for himself as he held off Varane in the box but he could only fire into the side netting. France should have then killed the game with Gameiro forcing Stekelenburg into a save, Griezmaann firing over the bar and Pogba sending a free header wide.
Blind threw on Bas Dost as Netherlands went long ball towards the end looking for an equaliser and in the last minute they got a chance when Janssen headed the ball into the box for Memphis to swing his leg at it, but the wingers strike was pushed to safety by Lloris. France then played out the last few minutes to earn themselves a crucial three points.
Netherlands now drop to third in the group after Sweden beat Bulgaria 3-0. Next up is an away tie against Luxembourg in November.
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stekelenburg is responsible for this goal the shot was easy to deal with
we still need a winger Memphis begin to retain his form but he still not at his best promes is good but lack strength de vrij should have started for bruma (the weakest point in the deffence)
klassen not blamed as he isnt a winger the other players are good but this is the weakest generation of dutch football hope things changes
just fire blind. he doesn’t know what he is doing. worst manager in Netherlands’s history. why on the earth he is still netherlands manager?
This team can play with 2 division team like belarus bolgaria…beacuse they are a 2 division team teams like france are to strong for us..i am a big fan of oranje but they broke my hart too many times..they didnt go to the euro 2016 and i thing they miss world cup in russia too…its a shame and hurts when you watch the game…i hope that a beter times will come and we will have a strong team again…like we have in the past with players like stam,kluivert,davids,seedorf…first stap is that dany blind must go…
There is only one man to blame: DANNY BLIND!!!! How many points will holland drop before they understand that he is not a coach???? There are things even a 1 year old child can understand that blind doesn’t! Look at the french goal, bruma gives away the ball and stekelenburg concedes a goal that could be saved, both bruma and stekelenburg are blind’s choices instead of de vrij and zoet.now can any one tell me which coach in the world leaves de vrij on the bench,one the best defenders in the world and puts in bruma whom i never trusted, stekelenburg remained a free player, no one wanted him before koeman took him! Every single person in the world knows that if you stop pogba you stop the entire french manouver, why pogba had all that space??!! i had mentioned in a previous comment that i would have picked Fer to mark pogba, because he is strong,is one of the most important swansea players and plays in the stongest league in the world, blind went for vilhena, a 21 years old!!! Tonight i didnt see a team playing, i saw only 3 players,karsdorp, van dijk and jansen the others looked like shadows walking round the field.
Now the dutch federaration has 2 choices: keep going with blind and miss a second major tournament in a row or sack him and turn their fortune????
Its an easy decision, just take it!
Maybe when you reach the age of one someone will listen to you.
As expected by many but I predicted a win & again I was wrong. The starting eleven is a disappointing choice as maybe some injuries force blind to choose it. Despite the result, holland did give a fair fight. We are 3rd now in the table ,There are many games ahead and again I don’t think blind & assistant’s are the correct one managing oranje. Belarus & France is a world apart. Holland are among the best in this world and once 2nd best. We need urgently to bing back our reputation and form where we deserved and should be before it is very very too late.
Those days are gone. We have a decent bunch that could or do play CDM. We can use Bazoer who will be, probably, one of the world’s elite players, we have Clasie and even Blind. Reidewald has played well for Ajax in the position as well. But we do have better defenders than any other position and more of them! 5 across the back, one CDM, 3 AM’s, and a ST (which we are thin at). We have decent keepers, who, for the most part, are or can be the ever so popular sweeper keepers. Let’s use what we have and build this thing right! Danny Blind has to manage a team (not the national team) and we need someone with the brass and the brains! Stam, maybe, Koeman would be ideal, de Boer, somebody! Maybe van Bommel wants a go at seeing how he can’t keep his big mouth shut!
Who stated as captain ?
The Dutch didn’t deserve a point in this match, regardless of Stekelenburg’s mistake.
The midfield was the worst iv’e seen them recently. Errant passes galore, especially in the first half. Propper is not a #10 and Wijnaldum dallies on the ball too much. He’s sometimes totally unaware of what’s going on around him and loses possession easily. Holland could barely get out of their own half in the first 45. Very worrying signs as midfield is traditionally an area where the Dutch have the most depth and talent.
They did OK defensively but showed no attacking threat whatsoever, save for Karsdorp.
I know it was France but it was nonetheless a very poor performance, particularly for a home match. It’s early but it’s already clear that getting 2nd and qualifying thru playoffs is by far the most likely chance. Very disappointing.
Danny Blind is way out of his depth as the Netherlands coach and must go before it is top late. The squad worked hard enough last night but lack firepower and creativity in midfield and Blind played the wrong tactics.
It was a sad night for Dutch football and will only get worse with this loser in charge.
The midfield isn’t the problem, it’s where they are placed on the field and the roles he has them in (ie Strootman as a CDM)
Unfortunately that is because the Dutch have nobody else who can play DM effectively at the moment. Clasie has gotten no playing time and even when he has, he hasn’t been able to cope with the better teams in the Premier League. Nigel de Jong has been out of circulation too.
Marten de Roon should be considered.
Not a bad idea. I also was thinking Hendrix.