The Ajax man could thank his Juventus counterpart for saving him, as De Ligt’s positioning was perfect, the No 3 hoofing clear.Īustria were dominating as they had before the break. Daley Blind, who might have been the fall guy for De Ligt rather than Jurrien Timber, was shown up by Konrad Laimer whose gallop along the right allowed him to cross. Moments later Van Aanholt teed up Giorginio Wijnaldum yet from close range the finish again lacked conviction.ĭe Boer’s side kicked off the second half 45 minutes from qualifying. Patrick van Aanholt fizzed a diagonal ball into Wout Weghorst who squared the ball to the No 10 but he could only stab at it from four yards out. Once VAR instructed Orel Grinfeld to study the monitor there was only one verdict: the referee was correct to award the penalty as Alaba clearly stamped on Dumfries’s foot, so up stepped Memphis Depay to roll in the spot-kick for a first tournament strike.ĭepay has his own touch of the stuff but this was absent when missing a glaring opportunity. Here Denzel Dumfries – again excellent as against Ukraine – nipped the ball ahead of the 28-year-old whose challenge took the wing-back down in Austria’s area. Sadly Alaba may have been diverted because an early error presaged the Netherlands opener. As the captain an initial task was to ensure team-mates were not affected by the Oranje-fuelled wall of sound that met kick-off. Its important that he’s back.”Īustria’s star man is the Real Madrid-bound David Alaba but his was an outing to forget. Of De Ligt he said: “He performed a great game, he was very important, he took away some of their opportunities. We showed different qualities – were much better defensively.”

Today we lost the ball quickly, which is not too Dutch.

“Then we dominated the ball but in defence lacked some quality. “This was the opposite of against Ukraine,” De Boer said.

Pays-bas - ukraine euro 2020