Friday, November 22, 2024, 12:45
Spain already knows its last obstacle on the way to the final four of the Nations League, a competition in which it defends the crown won in 2023. More than a decade after that traumatic debut in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 (1 -5), La Roja meets the Netherlands again in an official match. Along the way, the team has faced the Oranje in a pair of friendlies, both in Amsterdam, resulting in a 1-1 draw in November 2020, with Luis Enrique, and with a 2-0 defeat in March 2015, when Vicente del Bosque was still working as a coach.
The Dutch team, which will always bring to Spain the indelible memory of the World Cup final in South Africa, in which La Roja touched the sky with Iniesta’s historic goal in extra time, presents itself as a highly demanding rival. Led by Koeman, they reached the semi-finals of the last Euro Cup after a series of consecutive continental disappointments, and after the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar, with Van Gaal on the tulip bench, they confirmed their return to the elite driven by a new generation. of talents that has Van Dijk, Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay as illustrious veterans.
It so happens that the Netherlands is, along with England, rival in the Euro Cup final, the only European team with which Spain has a negative balance of confrontations. However, the current situation of both teams gives some favoritism to Luis de la Fuente’s team, which swept its group. On the other hand, the Oranje entered this round as second in their group, clearly surpassed by Germany, to whom they lost in Munich and tied in Amsterdam.
Gakpo, generally more in tune with the national team than in Liverpool, is the offensive reference of a team with a lot of speed, which is given to him by dizzying footballers such as the attackers Xavi Simons and Malen or the wingers Dumfries and Frimpong. Captain Van Dijk, De Ligt or De Vrij set the defensive hierarchy with the Milan player Reijnders as the new compass in the midfield waiting for the best version of the Barcelona player Frenkie de Jong.
Verbruggen, owner of the Oranje goal for some time, is at 22 years old still far from the hierarchy of historical Dutch goalkeepers like Van der Sar or Van Breukelen. However, his imposing height and his good performance between the sticks for Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton, a Premier League sensation perched on the European spots, predict a good future for him.
complicated route
«At this point all the rivals were very tough. It’s been a while since we faced the Netherlands. They have good players, a great team and they have just had a great Euro Cup, in the semi-finals, so it will be a very difficult match,” De la Fuente analyzed before the federation’s official media. The man from La Rioja values very positively the possibility of resolving the tie at home, with the emotional burden that playing in Valencia will imply.
“The fans are dedicated to us and there is a great relationship with the team and its players, but in any case we will try to play a great role in the first leg so as not to have to fix something here that is truly difficult to solve,” he explained. to the order of the games and the importance of the field factor.
The first leg matches of the quarterfinal round will be played on March 20, 2025, with the first round in the Netherlands, and three days later the four qualifiers will be resolved, with Spain’s duel in Mestalla, in a nod to those affected by the terrible DANA that especially hit the province of Valencia just three weeks ago. If they reach the final four, with a venue yet to be defined and that will come from the candidatures presented by the semi-finalists, La Roja would face the winner of the duel between Croatia and France in the semi-finals, a repeat of the World Cup final in Russia. in 2018.
The quarterfinals:
Netherlands – Spain.
Croatia – France.
Denmark – Portugal.
Italy – Germany.
