Key events
78 mins: The home side make their first substitutions, bringing on Wout Weghorst and Donyell Malen for Simons and Depay.
77 mins: Another great chance for Scotland! Ralston’s cross from the right finds McTominay at the far post, but he heads wide!
74 mins: A couple more substitutions from Scotland, who bring Anthony Ralston for Patterson, and Stuart Armstrong for Christie
GOAL! Netherlands 2-0 Scotland (Wijnaldum, 72 mins)
And in the end the second goal goes to the Netherlands! They work the ball wide to Gakpo on the left, and he sends in a lovely right-footed cross that finds Wijnaldum puzzlingly unmarked at the near post – Souttar, just on the field, was not up to speed – to head in.
71 mins: McGinn’s curler from 16 yards doesn’t quite curl enough. The Scots have had 12 shots, double the Dutch, but only two have been on target.
70 mins: But Depay hits Hendry’s head in the wall, and Scotland clear.
69 mins: Depay goes down on the edge of the area – Hendry had his hands on his shoulders but didn’t seem to be doing anything with them. The referee lets the Dutch play on for a while before bringing it back. This is a seriously good shooting chance.
68 mins: Some Scottish substitutions, the first of which sees Shankland leave the field. The frustration that man must feel. Che Adams comes on, and Souttar replaces Tierney while Ferguson comes on for Gilmour.
65 mins: Here’s that chance in full. At the other end, Simons turns, assesses his options, then plays a bewildering pass to nobody.
62 mins: Incredible miss! Wieffer collects the ball from Flekken, turns and hits his pass straight into McTominay, off whom it bounces to Shankland. He runs into the area, draws Flekken and sidefoots into the woodwork!
59 mins: Simons spins in the area and sends in a shot that bounces a couple of yards wide. Surely – surely – this game is not finishing 1-0.
56 mins: Robertson now races into the area, tries to turn away from Ake and sends the ball to a covering defender.
56 mins: This half has been ridiculously action-packed. Gakpo has a shot from 20 yards that Gunn has to push over the bar.
54 mins: Gilmore intercepts Flekken’s pass to Reijnders, gets the ball back 0ff a teammate then has a shot from the edge of the area that deflects just wide!
51 mins: Chance! Nearly an equaliser for the Scots! A remarkable couple of minutes ends with McGinn seeing his low, hard shot saved, picking up the rebound and crossing to Christie who, completely unmarked and 10 yards out, heads back across goal and wide!
49 mins: Save! Nearly a second for the Dutch! This is their best attack of the game, and it ends with Simons passing to Depay, who spins away from Hendry and, despite the defender’s enthusiastic shirt-tugging, sends a left-foot shot towards the corner, but Gunn dives to his left and palms it to safety!
48 mins: Chance for Scotland! Robertson’s excellent pass infield from the left is superbly brought under control by McTominay, who then turns back onto his right foot, eight yards out, and a goal, or at least something close to one, seems inevitable, but he’s closed down before he can get a shot off.
46 mins: The players are back out and play has restarted. I have had some soup.
“Surely as all the talk is of various kit (well in England’s case) and as this is a friendly and no one cares about the result, can we talk about the Scotland kit?” asks Tim Smith. Of course! I quite like it. Dark blue and bright yellow, classic combo. What do you think, Tim? “Total shocker! Whatever happened to the classic dark blue and white strips of yore. I happened to read about the Scots over-50 team this week in the G and an accompanying picture had a classic kit and (mostly) black boots and it was lovely.” I hope you don’t mind me saying that I’m getting heavy supporter-of-a-certain-age vibes here.
Half time: Netherlands 1-0 Scotland
45+2 mins: Depay works some space inside Scotland’s penalty area, but decides the space he’s worked isn’t the right space to shoot from, so runs back into traffic and nothing comes of it except, eventually, the referee’s whistle.
45+1 mins: There’ll be one minute of stoppage time before the break.
43 mins: Scotland are back on the front foot after that entirely undeserved goal. This scoreline massively flatters the Dutch, who have been flat and unimpressive.
GOAL! Netherlands 1-0 Scotland (Reijnders, 40 mins)
The Dutch might not have got anywhere near Scotland’s goal so far but they scarcely need to with shooting like that, Reijnders giving Gunn no chance with a 30-yarder!
37 mins: For some reason McGinn decides that Gakpo, about 50 yards from goal and offering no real threat, can’t possibly be allowed to run with the ball, pulls him back and ends up with his hands fully around the forward’s waist. I’m not sure what he was thinking, and the third booking of the night is hard to argue with.
35 mins: Scotland attack down the left, and McGinn runs onto the low centre but has no space and can’t get his shot on target.
33 mins: Gakpo gets into the area and immediately goes down, with scarcely a blue shirt anywhere near him. It’s a scandalous, disgraceful dive, evidence of the Netherlands’ growing desperation. It’s really completely dismal behaviour.
32 mins: Whistles from the home crowd, who thought they would be the ones giving out a footballing lesson this evening. After a quiet opening the Scots have had the better of the last 15 minutes, and the Dutch have not threatened their goal at all.
30 mins: Another booking, this one for Depay, whose foot lands on McTominay’s left boot as he follows through from winning the ball – another harsh decision I think.
28 mins: Robertson appears to have misplaced his crossing boots – he’s had a couple of goes now and they’ve both been loopy and overhit.
26 mins: This has been very good so far from Scotland, and for the last two minutes they’ve kept the ball in the Dutch defensive third, attacking first down the right, moving it left and finally winning a free-kick in the centre.
23 mins: Netherlands break after a Scottish free-kick, but Memphis Depay’s pass to Frimpong is a bit behind his run, and instead of controlling it he falls over.
20 mins: An unexpected turn of speed briefly takes Wijnaldum clear, but he turns onto his right foot, can’t decide what to do next and the opportunity is gone.
17 mins: Scotland hit the bar! It’s a good attack, Gilmour crosses from the right and Christie gets in front of Frimpong, hurls himself at the ball and Flekken flings out a hand to turn it onto the woodwork!
14 mins: “For me, few fixtures evoke as many images of football in the 70s as Netherlands v Scotland,” writes Peter Oh. “Big, curly hair, moustaches, small shorts, booming shots from long range, clumps of grass flying everywhere, goalies picking up back passes, unscripted goal celebrations, advertisement hoardings of companies I could relate to.” Beautiful images, to be sure. They only played twice in the 70s, a friendly in 1971 and then the infamous World Cup game in 1978.
11 mins: A cross from the right finds Shankland on the edge of the area. It would have been almost impossible for him to score with his head from there but he has a decent go, the ball going over the bar.
9 mins: McTominay runs with the ball, feels Simons’ hot breath at the back of his neck and flings out a palm to fend him away. A fingertip brushes Simons’ nose before the hand lands in his chest, but the Dutchman goes down like he’s been elbowed in the cheek and earns McTominay a ludicrous yellow card with his antics.
“Regarding footballers playing for a country they weren’t raised in, the US men’s national team has a handful of them, two of whom started yesterday in the Nations League match,” writes Harriet Osborn. “Folarin Balogun and Yunus Musah only qualified to play for the USA because they were born on US soil and are therefore US citizens; neither actually lived in the country very long if at all.
“Balogun in particular seems to have chosen the USMNT over England for exactly the same reason brought up for Barnes to switch to Scotland- he was never going to displace the established England forwards, or even the “second-string” forwards for that matter. But (outside of last night) he’s been quite good for us. Musah’s reason for switching was less obvious, and the Gregg Berhalter Charm Offensive had to run for longer to get him. Regardless, he’s quickly become one of our most important players.”
Like I say, I don’t really get it, though I can see that playing in a World Cup would be on most players’ bucket lists.
6 mins: Van Dijk releases Gakpo, but as he reaches the edge of the area Hendry arrives and does a flying/falling shoulder-barge that pushes him wide, and the chance is lost. The offside flag is then raised, though it looks super close.
5 mins: Scotland win a free-kick and toss it into the mixer, but Flekken claims well and then hurls the ball to the halfway line, setting Frimpong free, but his pass infield is poor.
3 mins: The Dutch are looking bright. Scotland win the ball on the right but there’s nobody to pass to until Patterson steams down the wing to offer an option, and once it’s passed forward to him there’s nobody for him to pass to, and nobody steaming anywhere.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Scotland get the ball rolling.
“This is probably a comment that you hear quite frequently but I was wondering what the general lay of the land is regarding these games being broadcast on a pay-monthly subscription service rather than free to air on the BBC or other terrestrial channel?” muses Ben Haynes. “I’ve rather bizarrely enjoyed watching Wales with Welsh commentary on the BBC even though I don’t speak any Welsh, but surely there’s moral obligation to broadcast the home nations’ games free of charge to all. How did we get to this point?”
It’s absolutely miserable for the common fan, that’s for sure – I can accept one subscription-based sports broadcaster but after that my patience wears thin – but this is a humble friendly and it’s hard to argue it needs to be protected for the nation.
Virgil Van Dijk and Andy Robertson, club teammates, exchange pennants and hugs at the coin toss.
Players out, and anthems being sung. With a live military brass band, to boot.
The players are in the tunnel, and the fans enjoying a semi-snazzy light show (the lights are basically just being rapidly turned on and off).
“Thoughts on Harvey Barnes declaring for Scotland?” writes Tony Hughes. “I think it would be a great move all around. He likely isn’t going to get a call up for England and, at 26, how much longer does he have left to oust a Foden, Grealish or even an Anthony Gordon? He’d be a shoo-in on the left wing for Scotland. Now he just needs to do it.”
Clearly he’s unlikely to get into England’s team in the foreseeable future, so if his goal is to play senior international football and he qualifies for Scotland that would seem to be the obvious conclusion. But does he actually feel Scottish in any way? I completely understand why the coach of an international side would want to pick from the best possible squad but I find it less easy to grasp why someone who is born and raised in one country would want to represent another.
Steve Clarke has a chat. He says he’s picked Lawrence Shankland because he is still learning about the Hearts forward’s capabilities, whereas he knows his other strikers much better. “It’s a friendly but it’s a competitive friendly,” he says. “We’ve chosen to come here, you can feel the atmosphere right now, it’s going to be a test for us. We’ve got to learn how to play in this kind of environment. It’s going to be like this in Munich. That’s why we’re here.”
So the Dutch midfield three consists of Tijjani Reijnders, who has an unusual number of Js in his name, Mats Wieffer and Gini Wijnaldum, who have six, seven and 90 caps respectively. Wijnaldum has not been in any of the last six Dutch squads but is evidently back in favour. Scotland also switch to a three, though at the back rather than in the middle.
The teams!
The teams have been named, and tonight’s starting XIs look like this:
Netherlands: Flekken, Frimpong, Geertruida, van Dijk, Ake, Wieffer, Wijnaldum, Reijnders, Simons, Depay, Gakpo. Subs: Verbruggen, de Ligt, Schouten, Weghorst, Timber, de Roon, Veerman, Blind, Malen, Koopmeiners, Dumfries, Bizot.
Scotland: Gunn, Tierney, Hendry, Porteous, Robertson, McTominay, Gilmour, Patterson, Christie, McGinn, Shankland. Subs: Kelly, Clark, Gordon, Ralston, Cooper, Dykes, Adams, Souttar, Armstrong, Ferguson, Taylor, McLean.
Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium).
Preamble
Hello world! I noted that when PA Media, the artists formerly known as the Press Association, put out their Netherlands-focused preview for this match last night, shortly after Ronald Koeman’s press conference, they gave it the following headline:
Ronald Koeman says Netherlands ready for ‘interesting game’ against Scotland
It is very hard to think of a headline that more effectively screams “this is not going to be an interesting game” than this one. The Dutch manager spoke at length to the media and this, it appears, was the most exciting thing he said – and specifically that the game would be interesting because “maybe they will start with five at the back, maybe they will play 4-3-3 as a system” and “they will get the support of the Scottish people”. These are not even very interesting reasons for it to be interesting.
The Dutch will also have an interesting formation, having signalled that they will abandon the two holding midfielders they have favoured of late. “We are going to play with three midfielders, three real midfielders,” Koeman said. “In the preparation for the European Championship, we are not going to experiment too much. But I’ve already said it, this team is able to play different systems. I have the reputation of being a cautious coach. But I would like to have the ball, attack, put pressure on the opponent. That is possible with multiple systems.”
So, there’s that.
Scotland won five games in a row between March and September last year, but have proceded to go five games without a win, though they have drawn their last two. “Netherlands will be a tough match and we want to get back to winning ways and prepare right for this tournament,” Billy Gilmour said yesterday, but perhaps Tuesday’s home game against Northern Ireland – when Netherlands travel to Germany for a grudge friendly – is when winning ways are more likely to be regained.
Anyway, welcome. Let’s hope it’s, er, interesting.