The Netherlands have opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a point after drawing 1-1 in Sweden.
- By Michael Statham
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Wesley Sneijder equalised for the Oranje following Marcus Berg’s sublime chip for the Swedes. It could have been so much better for the away side but Bas Dost’s injury time header was disallowed for a very soft foul on defender Victor Lindelof.
Danny Blind’s men started the game in promising fashion. Davy Klaassen saw a great early chance saved by Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen after Kevin Strootman’s delightful dink over the defence found the Ajax captain.
Further intricate build-up lead to more opportunities for the Dutch, but Klaassen and Vincent Janssen failed to score.
The visitors were made to pay for their misses just before half-time, when the first real opening for Sweden arose from sloppy play by Strootman. Former Groningen and PSV striker Marcus Berg seized upon the ball and lifted it over Jeroen Zoet.
The second half began much like the first, with the Dutch dominating the possession and chances. Klaassen had another header palmed away, Sneijder sliced over when well placed and Promes also missed the target.
The equaliser came for the Dutch when Daryl Janmaat cut in from the right-wing and had a blistering left-foot shot saved by Olsen, and Sneijder followed in to slot in the rebound.
The introduction of Bas Dost for the ineffective Georginio Wijnaldum almost proved inspired by Danny Blind as the Dutch searched for a winner. He was immediately into the action, as another ball over the top from Strootman found the big striker, only for the Sporting Lisbon man to lift his shot over the bar.
Dost was in the action again in injury time, but his excellently placed header was chalked off for a foul on Swedish defender Lindelof, and now the Dutch must look for three points in their next game against Belarus in October.
It was good game many chanses for oranje…one mistake of strootman cost us a win but i am very optimistic for upcoming game if we play like again sweden we have good chanses to be top of the group A…hup hup holland
there is a lot to improve with this team and i firmly believe danny blind is not the right man to do it.
ARE u fucking kidding me!! have u even watched the game? Dost goal was abolutly regular it was a tremdous referee error that did not grant us our deserved win!!!
I did watch the game that’s why I wrote the report…
I know it was never a foul in a million years, but I can’t call the referee a w****r in my report can I? Lmao
Y i agree u cant go calling him a w*** but still u should have mentioned that we were really robbed by the referee! He cleary had tomatoes on his eyes when dost scored!
That last minute header should have counted. He barely made contact. Nederlands deserved a win tonight. They just lack a good goal scorer. I though this game was taylor-made for Huntelaar but not sure if he was in the squad. I’m sure he would’ve scored a few this evening.
Sorry but a draw vs. Sweden WITHOUT Zaltan means nothing. For far to long far to many have considered style to be greater than winning. The Orange need to win! Nothing else really matters.
Plz blind go u r hoooooooome come back v.Gaal our Rijkaard next match gk krul v.dijk de vrij indi janmaat strootman wijnaldum sneijder robben depay janssen
We were robbed. But it happens.
A lot of improvement is needed.
Not sure about Wijnaldum being ‘ineffective’.
A huge concern is when playing against better pressing teams
While Wijnaldum did not create many goal scoring opportunities he kept the ball moving, kept the possession going when pressure was at its greatest, preventing what would have been some very dangerous counterattacks.
Janmaat and Wijnaldum combined ok together and Strootman, Sneijder and Wijnaldum just need more time together.
But Promes and Berghuis lacked the necessary class. And besides some of Blind’s longer passes, his game was not up to it. I’m really concerned that if he is played at left back he will get skinned on the counter.
The scoreline could have been a lot better, but against top sides pressing and playing with intensity, it could have been a lot worse.
Blind on the left behind an aging Sneijder is not a good thing. Sneijder and Williams badly need game time together.
It was great Wesley doing his thing, he just needs effective cover.
The Dutch were unlucky not to win this one at the end but that’s the way football goes sometimes. Sweden is not a very strong side but this was still the best performance in a competitive match by the Netherlands in quite some time.
Janssen, Sneijder, and Van Dijk were all excellent. Janmaat is suspect defensively but he brings A LOT more to the table going forward than Veltman (or Tete).
Hopefully Stefan de Vrij is back for the next set of games because Bruma looks shaky. Handles ball like a grenade and heads it into horrible areas sometimes.
I would like seeing the glass half full, after this game but i cant. This sweedish team without ibra was the worst sweeden in the last 30 years. There are some decisions i dont agree with in the dutch team: 1. Daley bling is too slow to play on the left, i would choose van aanholt. 2. Sneider is far from his best i would start with vilhena or even nigel de jong because sweedish midflielders had too much space. 3 Janmaat is wonderful ofensively but difensively he lacks a lot, 4. Bruma is good but i dont trust him, i would choose vlaar in the centre, Promes impressed me most,he was the best player,jansen has a great future but holland needs his goals now, i liked also klaasen.
I watched the game and the result was absolutely fair. This team does not look world class, they might just squeeze on a flight to Russia. The World cup might get a little embarrassing.
I cant believe how shit this team is.
u watched the game and u say the result is absolutly fair lol on what kind of drugs where u tripping during the whole game!
The game where Sweden capitalised on a mistake made by the Dutch. So to me, that is a fair result. The result was also fair because non of the teams deserve to win the game. Come on mate you sound like an England fan and you just have to get use to that Dutch are a bag of shit and are relying on the past reputation to give them the edge.
A richly deserved result as the boys in Orange were far the better team
On another day we could have won 4-1 with ease. At least it was a decent performance (albeit against a bad Swedish team) and right at the end we were robbed by a blind ref instead of a Blind coach.