There's a noticeable dropoff in quality with Tete there instead of Dumfries. I also think the France game took a lot out of the Netherlands while Germany had an easier game vs Russia, but still credit to Germany for taking advantage.
Mmm, what I posted in the France match I should have repeated here, "donot let them shoot from 25 - meters". We miss the power of Dumfries.
Poor defending on both German goals. On the first van Dijk was too far up field and de Ligt slow in coming over. Real lack of pressure on the German MFs letting them make to many inside passes. I think the Dutch left some energy out on the pitch in Rotterdam as they seem to be a half step too slow tonight. I hope I am proved wrong, but I don't see them coming back (but the Swiss did exactly that yesterday against Belgium).
Totally outplayed for 80 minutes and the the f***king great comeback I've seen. Great interplay for Promes to get his goal and then they dodged a bullet on a breakaway that should have sealed the match for the Germans and then van Dijk's goal to send the club to the final four. Just great for these kids.
HUP HOLLAND! Haha what a comeback! I don't think that we were nearly as bad as people made it out to be today. Germany's goals were both pretty fortunate. Promes and van Dijk coming up huge when needed...euphoria after nobody gave us a chance in this group!
Koeman passed deLigt a note to give to vDijk which tol him to move up to the striker position in final minutes. And we all know what happened next All credit to Koeman and Virgil
I posted in the German thread the match was moving on a geriatric pace and in the last regular 10 minutes we showed some pace and the goals came. Did they just take an eighty minutes break? Demmit, one goal short to equal the English.
I think Koeman will use the first 80 minutes of the match as a good training film of what NOT to do in a football match. Dutch were really out of sorts until late in the match. While they controlled the MF against France it was just the opposite tonight. Two defense lapses gave the goals away. van Dijk moving too far up and de Ligt not sliding over fast enough on the first one. Sane was right between defenders and was able to take the ball without challenge and then spun away from de Ligt. Even so props to the two center backs who won every aerial ball into the box. When was the last time you could say that about the Dutch. Player Ratings: Cillessen (6.5) - not at fault on the two goals and I think got a touch on Werner's shot. Blind (6.5) - decent enough and his ball handling was excellent van Dijk (7) - got to the goal to send the team to Portugal and was a beast in the air de Ligt (7) - a couple of positional errors but otherwise tough on defense and had some nifty ball handling midway in the 2nd half Tete (4) - Dumfries is better without question F de Jong (5.5) - could not influence the game de Roon (6) - positionally good and I think it was his pass to Promes for the first goal Wijnaldum (4) - hardly touched the ball and subbed off Babel (4) - very poor touches on the half of football he played before hurting his leg Depay (5.5) - OK play but that's all Promes (7) -gets points for his second half play because he was totally absent in the first Dilrosun (4) - not much to speak of coming on for Babel and then he gets hurt Vilhena (6.5) - played his usually hard nosed game coming in for Wijnaldum and a great cross into the box to set the stage for van Dijk L de Jong (7) - never thought I would write in praise of Luukinho but he kept the ball alive and allowed the Dutch to get back into the match Great last six minutes after a horrible 83. Off to Portugal for the finals which might just be winnable for this group of kids.
Why were Sane and Werner taken off? To be fair, Sane exerted a lot more energy and needed to move more as he does for Man City I feel.
Everything I feared and hoped for. Defensive lapses contributed to the two conceded goals. Too casual, not enough pressing and intensity. Koeman must have been furious. Van Dijk and De Ligt seemed surprised to contain the German attackers moved a lot (Sane in particular looked really lively). It’s almost like they haven’t moved on from the previous game. Counter-attacks were not as crisp as it could have been. Memphis reverted to his old self... trying to be cute and do too much. Babel and Wijnaldum were way too invisible. Thankfully Frankie and De Roon made up for a lot of the loose balls. And then, the hard-fought goals inside the last ten minutes. Kudos for not giving up. Van Dijk stole a playbook from Ruud van Goal’s finishing... turning and twisting his wide body while unleashing venom in the shot. Other notes... Tete is a huge drop off from Dumfries. He looked flat and rusty, no energy - and some of his positioning plays were awful. I actually like Promes (slightly) better than Bergwijn. He has more flair and, as the goal proved, he knew how to finish. I am slowly becoming a fan of De Roon. He is a true, tireless blue-collar worker... keep his head down and keep chugging along.
Cillessen did not get a touch on that first goal, and perhaps he arguably should have. The 2nd goal he had no chance on as it was deflected