Koeman and Van Dijk straightened the Netherlands’ path

Ronald Koeman took a gamble in Athens and emerged victorious. The Netherlands secured an important victory over Greece (0-1), thanks to a penalty in stoppage time converted by captain Virgil van Dijk, and straightened its path to Euro 2024 when qualification was complicated by a long list of casualties led by Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay and Cody Gakpo.

With this victory, the Netherlands regained second place in group B with the same points as Greece, but with a better average because in September they also won in Eindhoven 3-0. But while the Hellenes have one game left to play, ‘Oranje’ have two.

Greece will host qualifiers France in November and the Netherlands will face the last two teams in the group: against Ireland in Amsterdam and against last-place Gibraltar in Faro (Portugal).

Koeman, despite the losses, kept the line of three centre-backs where they lost on Friday against France (1-2) and introduced two more offensive changes: Wieffer and Bergwijn came on for De Roon and Veerman.

instead, Gustavo Poyet took more precautions respect the 4-3-3 in which they beat Ireland in Dublin (0-2) and opted for a 3-4-2-1, bringing Koulierakis as the third centre-back.

It was a free kick that Kostas Tsimikas took Konstantinos Mavropanos headed into the hands of goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen It was the first rather dangerous approach of the game (14′), but ‘oranje’ was the clear dominator of the game with possession It reached 64% in the first half.

Weghorst did not receive a penalty

Two consecutive shots of Tijani Reijnders which is not surprising that Odysseas Vlachodimos was the beginning of the excellent performance of the Greek goalkeeper, who in the 25th minute saved a penalty from Wout Weghorst made by Konstantinos Koulierakis to Virgil van Dijk at the exit of a corner.

Those were the moments when Greece, locked in the back, seemed vulnerable. But Vlachodimos has always been an inspirationas at the start of the second half, when the Netherlands came back into the fray and again showed style to get a shot from Bergwijn (47′).

Koeman risks

At half-time, Koeman took a risk bringing in a forward, Donyell Malen, for a defender, Lutsharei Geertruida, but seeing that the score remained 0-0, he introduced two changes to the attack on the clock looking for a formula to unblock the match.

Koeman Xavi Simons retired today by Joey Veerman and Brian’s unfortunate Weghorst Brobbey, the fifth debutant with full ‘Oranje’ in the last two games because of the casualties.

Poyet once returned to the defense of four by withdrawing Koulierakis while Manolis Siopis and Andreas Bouchalakis entered the double pivot to strengthen the retaining wall of Dutch attacks.

Greece continue to attack but concede a penalty at the end

The Uruguayan coach achieved his goal and in the last moments He started playing three forwards by bringing on Giorgos Giakoumakis and Vangelis Pavlidis in an attempt to score a goal in extremis that would have left them a step behind Germany.

He had a few chances but in injury time himself Pavlidis brought down Denzel Dumfries on the spot and this time Van Dijk took the captain’s stripes to score a penalty and score the goal that put ‘Oranje’ on course to qualify for the Euro Cup.

GREECE

01

NETHERLANDS

Greece: Vlachodimos; Rota, Mavropanos, Retsos, Koulierakis (Siopis, 61′); Bakasetas (Fountas, 60′), Kourbelis (Bouchalakis, 61′), Mantalos (Pavlidis, 81′); Masouras (Giakoumakis, 77′), Ioannidis, Tsimikas
The
Netherlands: Verbruggen; Geertruida (Malen, 46′), Van Dijk, Aké; Dumfries, Wieffer (De Roon, 81′), Reijnders, Hartman (Van de Ven, 74′); Simons (Veerman, 62′), Weghorst (Brobbey, 62′), Bergwijn

Goal: 0-1 Van Dijk (pen.) (93′) Cards: YELLOW: Geertruida (13′), Kourbelis (13′), Mantalos (28′), Simons (51′), Retsos (76′), Pavlidis (86′) Referee: Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain)
Stadium: OPAP Arena in Athens
The

see the match sheet