Netherlands 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign comes to an end on Tuesday with a tie against Sweden in Amsterdam.
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The chances of Netherlands making it to Russia were all but ended on Saturday with Sweden running out 8-0 winners over Luxembourg, a result that basically guarantees them at least second place. Netherlands could only muster a poor 3-1 win at Belarus, meaning Dick Advocaat’s side need to run out at least 7-0 winners against Sweden to take second spot.
Despite the huge task ahead, Advocaat is refusing to give up, “It will be difficult to win 7-0.
”It is a football match and everything is possible. It will be a difficult game because Sweden have shown in recent months that they are a difficult team to beat but you never know.”
Sweden still have a chance of pipping France, who host Belarus, to top spot in the group. However, they would need to better France’s result in order to automatically qualify for Russia.
Team News
All eyes in Amsterdam will be on Arjen Robben, who would not confirm or deny that Tuesday could be his final Netherlands game before announcing his international retirement. The 33-year-old will definitely start the game, but there is question marks over a number of players who were poor in Belarus.
It remains to be seen whether Tonny Vilhena, Vincent Janssen, Ryan Babel, Daryl Janmaat and Georginio Wijnaldum keep their places after poor performances on Saturday.
Possible Netherlands line up: Cillessen, Tete, Blind, Van Dijk, Rekik, Propper, Wijnaldum, Vilhena, Robben, Memphis, Janssen
Sweden have a number of players who will be familiar to Dutch football fans with John Guidetti, Marcus Berg and Ola Toivonen all part of the squad. Berg goes into the game in red hot form, having netted four against Luxembourg.
Possible Sweden line-up: Olsen, Lustig, Augustinsson, Lindelhof, Granqvist, Claesson, Forsberg, Larsson, Johansson, Toivanen, Berg
Previous meetings
Netherlands kicked off their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 1-1 draw in Sweden, a game which easily could have been an Oranje win if Bas Dost’s late header wasn’t ruled out for a soft foul.
Both nations have met on 19 occasions with Sweden winning eight, Netherlands seven and four matches ending in a draw.
The last win for Netherlands came in 2010 during the 2012 Euro qualifiers. Oranje won 4-1 that day with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay both netting doubles.
Odds
Netherlands: 5/6 Draw: 31/10 Sweden: 16/5
Football-Oranje editor Michael Bell’s prediction
I think we can all agree that Netherlands won’t beat Sweden 7-0 on Tuesday, and after Saturday’s performance against Belarus, I am not even confident that Oranje can win this game at all.
Netherlands will not be at the World Cup next year and once again all eyes will be on the KNVB to see what they are going to do to rejuvenate Dutch football. The next year or so are gonna be tough for Dutch football fans and it’s important that Netherlands at least gives fans some hope on Tuesday.
However, Sweden are a nation full of confidence and looking to take first place in the group from France. I can definitely see the visitors scoring but I hope that Arjen Robben can light up what could be his final Netherlands international. I see the winger netting a double to edge out the Swedes.
Netherlands 2-1 Sweden
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As much as we can criticize decisions regarding callups, who’s starting, etc, I do admire Advocaat’s attitude with not giving up. It’s a mentality that a lot of players at his disposal need to adopt.
A good performance and a win of any kind is the best that they can hope for at this stage. It looks like this will be Robben’s testimonial match so hopefully they can send him off in style.
The sad reality is that after Robben retires, the Dutch have only got 2 truly top, top players capable of starting for the very best squads in the world, and both are defenders – Van Dijk and De Vrij.
Memphis of course has the *potential* to become one as he’s still quite young, but as is often true with Dutch attacking players these days the potential often withers away.
Dark times seem on the horizon.
I agree with your assessment on players we have capable of starting for big clubs. After seeing other results around Europe, my tune on how much of an effect that has on results is changing.
Iceland just won a group ahead of Croatia and Ukraine. With the way Oranje has played in recent times, that’s better than we would have done in that group and there is no way Iceland has the individual talent Oranje does even now. The top club represented in Iceland’s squad this week is Everton. You can say the same thing for the Republic of Ireland (literally, Everton is the best club represented on their squad too) and they’re going to the playoffs. Southampton is the best club represented on Northern Ireland’s squad, and they’re going to the playoffs.
Those are three examples of national teams who are putting up better results than we are recently, and when it comes to individuals, our players still represent much better clubs, even if they aren’t on top European clubs. There is a problem with the Dutch mentality with football that needs to be addressed. We are used to individual skill getting us to the semis or the final of tournaments, but we can’t do that with the players currently at our disposal. Other countries adapt their tactics and play with passion. Why can’t we?
Agreed. We play so slow and uninspired and low confidence. I remember in 2014 when we were in somewhat of a same boat with level of talent, the players were playing with great unity and confidence. Holland played a defensive and unusual formation, but that’s what you have to do when you don’t have the talent pool that others do. They need to learn to adapt. Against Belarus, they should have had an all attacking fast-paced mentality right off the kick off.. who cares if that means they were more vulnerable defensively, they knew they needed a lot of goals, why be so conservative. Anyways, I hope after this and 2016, the decision makers start making the drastic changes necessary from ground up. No excuse for a country of highly passionate football fans and high enough GDP (even tho our population is low compared to the level we were competing at for decades) not to at least qualify for every tournament.
Very good points. I watched the way the Swiss played the other night against Hungary. Swiss midfielders playing direct and forward the moment the won the ball back, always looking to penetrate the opponents final 3rd as quickly as possible. Quick, crisp, and accurate passing once they got there. Hungary was pinned back the whole game and could have easily conceded 7 or 8. I haven’t seen the Dutch midfield perform like that in years. It made the lethargic, sideways passing, ball retaining but risk-averse approach the Dutch took on Saturday look laughable.
Yup it’s over. Goodbye Russia . A hard lesson to bite for all dutch fans and football fans. There will be no orange colour to bright up 2018 WC. We will all have to wait even a bit longer for holland to win the WC and I hope god will still extend my age to witness it. KNVB should re-appoint Bert van Marwijk to guide back Oranje to it’s original track.