The Netherlands gives up 0-2 lead and thus fails to qualify for the World Cup: “Disgraceful how we played” | Football

Norway lost points against Latvia (0-0) earlier in the evening, so that the Netherlands could secure a place at the World Cup with a victory over Montenegro. At Orange, national coach Louis van Gaal had no place for Noa Lang in his starting eleven – the Club attacker would come in fifteen minutes before the end.

From the bench, Lang saw how the Netherlands took the lead a little past halfway through the first half via a converted penalty from Memphis Depay. About ten minutes after the break, the Barcelona striker put Orange completely on roses with his second of the evening. The ticket for Qatar seemed to be booked.

Seemed, because in the final phase, the Orange completely handed over the certain victory. In the 82nd minute, Vukotic scored the connecting goal, four minutes later Vujnovic balanced the plates. The Netherlands still has to work hard in its last game against Norway, although a point in that game is enough for the qualification.

Virgil van Dijk did not have a good word for the Dutch failure. “Of course I am angry,” said the Orange captain afterwards at NOS. “We should have secured qualifying here today. I don’t know what to say, it’s unbelievable. I am speechless for a moment.”

Van Dijk saw the Orange collapse after the break. “It’s just outrageous how we played the second half. We all wanted to have the ball, we wanted to play football, we wanted to attack, we wanted to score. But you also have to make sure you think defensively. There was space on the counter if we didn’t have the organization. This is just awful. What was the problem? Maybe it was laziness.”

According to Van Dijk, it had nothing to do with the favorable result at competitor Norway. “I don’t want to say that, that should give us an extra boost. We have said to each other beforehand: ‘If it has to be ugly, it has to be ugly.’ We should have done that today.”