Orange will meet the winner of the match between Argentina and Australia in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Argentines defeated the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup, on penalties.
No beauty prize
The Netherlands has not yet applied for the Beauty Prize. The 71-year-old national team coach Louis van Gaal declared the result sacred at the end of a long coaching career. Only winning matters, and the way he wins is no longer important. The Orange often left the ball to the opponent, who noticed that it was difficult to score against five Dutch defenders and a defensive midfielder right in front of them.
The Netherlands played on the counter against No. 16 in the world rankings. Van Gaal soon saw that his tactics worked and that some of his predictions came true. His new first goalkeeper, Andres Nobert, saved Christian Pulisic’s first goal in the third minute with a good save, and Memphis Depay opened the scoring in the tenth minute. Van Gaal slowly brought his top scorer into this tournament after a long-term hamstring injury.
Depay opened the score after a brilliant attack of no less than twenty contact balls. The ball went from left to right and in the end Denzel Dumfries sent the forward into volume. The right-back also provided an assist for Daley Blind’s side to make it 2-0 in first half stoppage time. The left leg scored with the right, as happened in the World Cup consolation final eight years ago in Brazil.
lucky on target vs
The Orange started with the players who also got off the ground in their final group match with Qatar. Davy Klassen and Martin de Roon remained in the dressing room for Steven Bergwijn and Theon Kopemeners after the break. The Orange went on to play the way Depay wanted, with Bergwijn next to him and Gakbo behind him. Gakpo first stood up to Walker Zimmerman’s 2-1. After that, Bergwijn and Depay came close to 3-0.
It seemed to be no more than that, until Depay handed the ball over and Hadji Wright almost scored. Wright himself scored in the 76th minute with a lucky shot. The Dutch responded very quickly with Dumfries 3-1 up in the 81st minute, on instructions from Blind. For example, their appearance was very important to the Netherlands. Dumfries provided a goal and two assists. Blind score and replay hit.
