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Orange will meet the winner of the match between Argentina and Australia in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Argentinians eliminated the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup on penalties.
No beauty prize
The Netherlands did not apply for the beauty award. The 71-year-old national coach, Louis van Gaal, proclaimed the sacred result at the end of a long coaching career. Only the victory is important, the way he wins doesn’t matter so much anymore. The Orange have often left the ball to the opposition, who have noticed that it is difficult to score against five Dutch defenders and a defensive midfielder just in front of them.
The Netherlands played against against number 16 in the world ranking. Van Gaal soon saw that his tactic was working and some of his predictions came true. His new first goalkeeper Andries Noppert prevented Christian Pulisic’s opener in the 3rd minute with a fine save and Memphis Depay opened the scoring in the 10th minute. Van Gaal has slowly brought his top scorer into this tournament after a lengthy hamstring injury.
Depay opened the scoring after a superb attack of no less than twenty ball contacts. The ball passed from left to right and finally Denzel Dumfries served the striker to his size. The right-back also provided the assist for Daley Blind’s 2-0 in first-half stoppage time. The left leg scored with the right, like in the World Cup consolation final eight years ago in Brazil.
Lucky on goal VS
Orange started with the players who also kicked off in the last group game with Qatar. Davy Klaassen and Marten de Roon remained in the dressing room for Steven Bergwijn and Teun Koopmeiners after the break. Orange continued to play as Depay wanted, with Bergwijn next to him and Gakpo right behind. Gakpo first blocked Walker Zimmerman’s 2-1. After that, Bergwijn and Depay were close to 3-0.
There seemed to be nothing more, until Depay returned the ball and Haji Wright almost scored. The same Wright scored in the 76th minute, with a lucky shot. The Dutch responded very quickly with Dumfries 3-1 in the 81st minute, on instructions from Blind. For example, the backs were very important for the Netherlands. Dumfries provided a goal and two assists. Blind scored and set up a hit.
