Friday, June 13, 2008

Netherlands vs France

If you thought you had seen it all at the UEFA Euro 2008, i cannot tell you how wrong you were. After Spain beat Russia 4-1, people said they were favorites. When Portugal cruised to their second win, everybody deemed as the team that would go all the way. But tonight, Netherlands showed every football fan in the world, that it is infact them who are the best team in Europe, if not the world, right now.


Marco van Basten`s side had already thrashed world champions Italy 3-0 on Monday, and today they faced the men who lost in that world cup final. France on the other hand had a poor start to their campaign, being held in a score less draw against the dark horses Romania. 


Van basten stuck with the same 11 that gave Italy their worst defeat in 25 years while Raymond Domenech made 3 changes with Patrice Evra, Sidney Govou and injured Thierry Henry returning in place of Eric Abidal, Karim Benzema and Nicolas Anelka. 


The first real chance of the game was also the opening goal. Van der Vaart`s conner finds the head of Dirk Kyut and the Liverpool man leaps ahead of Florent Malouda to head in from 6 yards. Netherlands 1-0 France, 9 minutes gone.


It is the leaders who are pressing for the next goal and Sneijder comes close when his shot from distance goes over the bar.


The goal scorer also has another opportunity as he is on the revieving end of Giovanni van Bronckhorst's  long pass but the shot goes over the bar once more.


France looking on the back foot in a match that their rivals have started so well, had the best chance so far in the 22nd minute. Willy Sagnol`s pass into the box was collected by Govou who took a few touches on the ball before releasing an angled shot only to be saved by Edvin van der Sar. 


Raymond Domenech`s men are enjoying their best spell in the match calling the dutch keeper twice in one minute. First a low shot from Malouda is given straight into the hands of the dutch skipper after beating the entire defense from 30 yards out and then his club team mate Evra sets up Govou on the edge of the area, but his powerful shot finds the same result.


Frank Ribery then make his way into the area and gets between Ooijer and  Mathijsen and shoots towords the far post but the Manchester United keeper pounces on it to deny the French yet again.


They say you cannot create something out of nothing. Well Thierry Henry almost did. A long pass from Claude Makelele, and the Barcelona striker, whos back was towards the goal, received turned and shot in a matter of seconds, but unfortunately for him the ball dint find the target. 


A very evenly balanced first half, but it was only a rehearsal for what was to come in the next 45 minutes. 


The Euro 2000 winners almost had a penalty just at the start of the second period when Henry, and his French international team mates, claimed that his shot hit the shoulder of Ooijer but the refree could not care less about their claims.


A fabulous movement from France almost resulted in their tournament opener. Govou gave it to Malouda under pressure, and the Chelsea winger`s bicycle kick was taken by Henry ahead of the Dutch defense and one on one with the keeper but the former Arsenal man lobbed it over the bar. So near yet so far. 


The Netherlands were not really in a forgiving mood and would make their challenger pay for their misses. 


It all started when Arjen Robben, who came on for Engelaar at half time to make his first appearance in Switzerland, crossed from the left but Wesley Sneijder headed it into the safe hands of Edvin van der Sar.


Just a minute later we saw one of the goals of the tournament. A 360 degree turn and flic by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was surrounded by 2 defenders, found Robben and the Real Madrid winger ran half the field before putting in an inch perfect cross. Robin van Persie made no mistake with his shot and despite Coupet geting a hand to it, the ball went across the line. 


Robben continued to traumatize the slow and aging French defense moving in from the right before shooting straight at the keeper. 


Willy Sagnol ran down the right flank and played a great ball into Thierry Henry, who got the faintest of touches from the little toe of his left foot but it was enough to bring Les Blues back into the game. 2-1 game on.


Or so we thought. A minute later, Wesley Sneijder fed his team mate from club and country with a beautiful pass and the former Chelsea man did superbly to hold the ball between both central defenders and shot from one of the tightest angle`s on the left to score an outrageous goal. He was almost in line with the goal when he let the ball go and the quality of goals just get better with this Netherlands side.


Ruud van Nistelrooy almost made it 4-1. A great 40 yard ball from Sneijder is headed by the Real Madrid striker but Coupet does brilliantly to run back and get a hand to it before it lands up at the back of his net. 


Just before time, Robben left footed effort from just outside the area went inches wide from the near post. It was almost as France did not do anything wrong, just that Netherlands did everything right.


And they continued doing everything right when once again, WEsley Sneijder, who is a real contender for player of the tournament, turns and shoots a cracker from 25 yards out and sends it straight into the top left conner. No keeper in the world could save that. 


A sell out of 37,000 people saw a total demolition of a France side that did have their chances. They face a re match from the 2006 world cup in 4 days against Italy and even a win for them might not be able to seal qualification. For Netherlands on the other hand, the best team in the world couldn`t stop them, and nor could the second best. Can anybody in Europe stop Marco van Basten, Wesley Sneijder, Ruud van Nistelrooy and co? 

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