In the duel between the upcoming DFB opponents, the Dutch won against Scotland. Two Bundesliga stars are having a hard time, two others are convincing.
Alexander Kohne reports from Amsterdam
On Tuesday, the German national soccer team will play against the Netherlands (from 8:45 p.m. in the t-online live ticker). The dress rehearsal of the “Oranje” team is likely to pose a number of puzzles for national coach Julian Nagelsmann: The “Elftal” clearly beat Scotland 4-0 (1-0) in a friendly game, but revealed some glaring defensive weaknesses.
Nevertheless, the goals from Tijjani Reijnders (40th minute), Georginio Wijnaldum (72nd) and the Bundesliga stars Wout Weghorst (84th) and Donyell Malen (86th) ensured clear conditions in Amsterdam.
Meanwhile, the best Dutchman was goalkeeper Mark Flekken. At the press conference after the game, where t-online was also there, Bonds coach Ronald Koeman attested that the former Freiburg player had played a “big part” in the victory.
The man who was so praised was not completely satisfied with his team’s performance: “In the first hour we were very imprecise in our passes, we gave away possession too easily and didn’t really get into the rhythm. The 2-0 was a bit like that Redemption. Then we got more space and the game became easier,” said Flekken. In the end, his team was “very efficient” in exploiting opportunities against Germany’s first group opponents at the upcoming European Championships.
Meanwhile, he expects a different encounter against Germany: “This could be a very close game in which the little things will perhaps be more important,” said the 30-year-old after his seventh international match.
This is how the game went
Cody Gakpo missed the first supposed big chance of the game in the sixth minute: After Angus Gunn cleverly shortened the angle, the “Oranje” striker shot at the Scottish keeper from close range – but before he could get really annoyed, referee Erik Lambrechts ruled out Belgium is offside.
Shortly afterwards, a murmur went through the Johan Cruyff Arena after Manchester United’s Scott McTominay extended his right arm in a running duel and hit RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons square in the face. The Dutchman fell to the ground and held his face in pain for almost half a minute. Although McTominay didn’t want to see it at all, he was shown a yellow card.
Afterwards, two completely different approaches to the game met on the pitch: While the Scots played with a physical focus and lots of high balls, the Dutch tried to play a neat short passing game.
The British approach was initially more promising: in the 18th minute, Ryan Christie forced Flekken into a brilliant act when he deflected the Scot’s powerful header from almost five meters onto the crossbar.
The Dutch continued to struggle. Although they clearly controlled the game technically, there was hardly any danger in the Scots’ penalty area. The Bundesliga players Simons and Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen) in particular had visible problems on the right side of the Dutch team.
While Simons repeatedly became acquainted with the British’s intense style of play, Frimpong was outsmarted several times by Scotland’s star winger Andrew Robertson (Liverpool FC).
He made one of his dangerous outside runs in the 35th minute, brought the ball precisely to John McGinn, who was lurking in the penalty area, and the striker maneuvered the ball just over the goal from seven meters.