Full-time: Holland 2-0 Spain
That is that. There were two goals inside 16 minutes. The rest of the first half was dull. The second half was scrappy and saw 10 substitutions. Thanks for reading! Bye!
90 min+3: Counting down the seconds with some non-descript passing across the Holland defence.
90 min+1: De Vrij, being chased down by Morata, executes a Cryuff turn to get out of trouble. Not sure whether to be thrilled or disgusted by that.
90 min: We are into added time! There should be five minutes based on all the substitutions but this game has been dead since 16 minutes in.
88 min: Martins Indi concedes a corner after hooking David Silva’s cross over his own bar. Spain attempt to take it short but Holland are on to their oft-used trick and pen them in before recovering the ball.
An email from Raymond Reardon …
Spain’s players should have arrived earlier in the day and bonded at one of Amsterdam’s coffee shops as they seem totally lethargic and not up for this match against Holland.
Now I’m no expert when it comes to these things but surely that would have made them even more relaxed?
85 min: Bye, bye Depay. The star of the show is off to a decent ovation Affelay comes on in his place and I am now at risk of losing count of the substitutions.
84 min: I’m so enthralled by this that I just took a sip from a bottle of water and some of it dribbled down my chin.
82 min: Know when the ball hits the side netting and one side of the ground jumps up in celebration? That’s just happened here. Wijnaldum hits a rocket towards goal but it ripples the wrong side of the onion bag after Depay put him in.
81 min: Fabregas plays a hopeful/hopeless ball across goal, Vermeer gets a foot to it and Holland break through Dost. He feeds Narsingh and gets it back but the move breaks down.
79 min: Dost, banging them in regularly for Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, is on for Huntelaar.
77 min: That goal means Iniesta’s every touch will be booed for the remainder here. Meanwhile, Fabregas sends a low but tame effort into the stretched arms of Vermeer.
76 min: That was Cazorla’s last act. Spain’s sixth and final sub sees Iniesta – scorer of the only goal in the 2010 World Cup Final – come on for 15 minutes.
75 min: Silva now has a shot blocked by Martins Indi and Cazorla hooks the ball wide. More substitutions imminent, too, it appears. Oh, joy!
73 min: Jonathan de Guzman is on for Daley Blind. That’s the seventh substitute of the game. 5-2 to Spain.
An email from JR in Illinois
Hey Alan,
I consider it slightly peculiar that there is an MBM for this game but not one for Israel v Belgium, the only Euro qualifier of the day, but whatever. No biggie.
Personally I can’t pass up a chance to see a game featuring Marc “War Pig” Wilmots on the sideline and Mark “Crap Referee” Clattenburg ruining, er I mean running, the show.
Anyway, my main point is to draw attention to what Vincent Kompany did in the 13th minute. He performed the most outrageous shot attempt of the season. He juggled the ball twice with his right foot then attempted to smash the ball into the goal on the volley. From approximately 45 yards. He missed. It really needs to be seen.
Oooh, and now Komany just got his second yellow and has been sent off by Clattenburg. Yikes.
Fair point, JR, but due to copyright restrictions I can’t show you a clip of it. So you’ll need to go on to Vine or Twitter and if you search Kompany and Israel you will find it easily. It’s well worth watching – certainly better viewing than this tripe.
70 min: Silva has the ball in the net but he is offisde (and also handles the ball) from Morata’s shot-cum-pass.
68 min: Another pair of Spain substitutions sees Ramos and San José on for Pique and the ineffective Mario Suarez.
65 min: Vitolo has shanked a great chance wide. Morata played a five yard pass to his fellow substitute who shot wide when unmarked ten yards from goal. Dreadful.
63 min: For Spain, Morata has come on for Juanmi, whose debut wasn’t the most impressive.
63min: Wijnaldum replaces Sneijder, who was quite decent in midfield during his hour and a little bit more.
61 min: It’s taken by Pique! He sends it through a gap in the wall with his right but Vermeer is down to save.
60 min: Vitolo has won a free-kick less than a yard outside the Holland area having made a rampaging run forward only to have his right ankle clipped by Huntelaar.
58 min: Klaassen pumps a long ball forward but De Gea is quickly out to drive the danger far, far away.
56 min: Sneijder picks out Depay on the left. Again, he cuts in and then sends a dipping strike towards goal. De Gea palms away.
53 min: And from that Martins Indi has missed a glorious opportunity to put the game to bed. Sneijder sends a lovely pass in from the right and the defender rises unmarked six yards out. He only has De Gea to beat but he somehow heads downwards and the ball bounces over.
Updated
52 min: Pique goes long and picks out Carvajal in an advanced position on the right but Depay tracks his run and holds off Carvajal well before clearing. From Holland’s counter, Narsingh wins a corner.
50 min: If Andy Townsend was watching this, he would have said this is BETTER from Spain. Bernat flashes a low cross from the left past the face of goal but no black shirt is on hand to add a final touch as Fabregas mistimes his run.
48 min: Blind penalised for halting Viotlo. but Fabregas’s delivery is poor. De Vrij heads it unconvincingly into the air before Vermeer pulls it down and into his arms.
47 min: Pedro and Isco came off for the visitors at the break.
Peep!
46 min: We’re back off again. Can Spain show a bit more in attack than the opening half?
David Silva and Vitolo, another debutant, are coming on for Spain at the break. Waiting to confirm who has come off …
Half-time: Holland 2-0 Spain
45 min: Luckily, there is no injury time. Holland, mainly thanks to Depay adding a sprinkle of excitement, deservedly go in at the break with a two-goal lead.
44 min: Vermeer has been quick off his line with the slightest sniff of any Spanish danger and he repeats his Neuer-lite trick by rushing out to meet a long pass. He smothers but brings down an onrushing Carvajal while doing so.
43 min: Huntelaar and Albiol have a coming together which leaves the Spain defender incensed and he shoves Huntelaar on the back. The referee steps in to calm things down and we continue.
41 min: Holland still passing it across the backline.
39 min: Depay is off down the left this time but he senses trouble ahead, turns around and plays back to Willems and Holland embark on a prolonged period of patient passing. I like alliteration.
36 min: It’s been tame enough fare since the second goal but Depay is a joy to watch. Carvajal is the latest to be made look a tad silly by the 21-year-old, even if the final ball lacks a little incisiveness. How much will PSV fetch for him when he inevitably moves to Spain, Germany or, er, England?
34 min: Isco throws a sweet dummy and plays in Juanmi, whose snapshot from the edge of the area fizzes wide.
32 min: Spain are coming into it a bit more now but Pedro, making his 50th appearance for the 2010 world champions, is halted by Willems.
31 min: Pedro turns Martins Indi too easily in the area but from a tight angle Vermeer is out to block impressively. Holland then break and Huntelaar’s pressure forces a corner. Depay’s pass is cleared by Isco. Yes, Isco.
Updated
28 min: Fabregas wins a corner for Spain. It is worked short and Cazorla plays a dinked pass towards the six-yard box where Pique emerges to challenge Vermeer. However, the Holland keeper is on hand to smother.
24 min: Sneijder plays it along the deck on the left to Depay, who then feeds Willems but his cross is easily dealt with.
21 min: Both sides are without big names but Holland are really dominating this. Spain cannot find any rhythm and Juanmi looks isolated up top on his own. And by up top I mean somewhere near halfway with his team-mates sat deeper.
2 - Stefan de Vrij (27 caps, 3 goals) scored two of his three goals for the Dutch national team against Spain. Matador.
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) March 31, 2015
18 min: Juanmi, feeding off scraps so far on his Spain debut, runs into trouble and Holland have a goal-kick.
Holland 2-0 Spain (Klaassen, 16)
16 min: Three minutes later and Holland are back in front again! Depay sees Klaassen on his right, picks him out and Davy shoots straight at David de Gea. The goalkeeper can only block rather than smother, however, allowing Klaassen to turn the rebound home.
Updated
Holland 1-0 Spain (De Vrij, 13)
13 min: But Holland send another cross in following Pique’s clearance from the corner and De Vrij is on hand to steer Sneijder’s kick from the left home.
Updated
12 min: Pique concedes another corner but the delivery is, once again, poor.
10 min: Holland stroke it around at a leisurely pace but Spain remain compact and after 30 or so passes Mario Suarez intercepts.
7 min: Depay dazzles the Spain defence with a couple of step-overs before playing a sweet one-two with Huntelaar. When he receives it back, 25 yards from goal, the next great Dutch hope, fizzes a shot that De Gea saves with some ease.
5 min: That is taken short before being worked into the box by Carvajal. Raul Albiol heads towards goal but misses the target by some way.
4 min: Isco is played through by Juanmi but the former is marginally offside as Vermeer emerges to smother the ball. From that the Holland free-kick is intercepted and Juanmi wins a corner.
Updated
2 min: Early corner for the hosts as Pique heads a cross towards Huntelaar away from danger. The delivery is easily dealt with by Isco at the front post.
Peep!
1 min: We are underway with both teams in their away kits. This makes me deeply unhappy. Holland, playing from left to right as we watch it, are in white shirts and socks with orange shorts; Spain are in black with neon yellow trim.
“In reply to Charles Antaki David Villa says hi,” writes Anna Pons.
It’s time for the anthems!
Your* pre-match email s
Spain have notoriously lacked a proper centre-forward since the glory days of Raúl - recent damp squibs Llorente and Torres are (very) pale imitations. Hence the need for the emergency nationalisation of Diego Costa. And he’s mostly injured. So step forward Juanmí, presumably on the basis that he can’t be any worse than Morata (who did actually score against Ukraine, though), and that he appears to be physically fit.
*Charles Antaki’s
The teams
Holland: Vermeer; Janmaat, De Vrij, Martins Indi, Willems; Narsingh, Blind, Klaassen, Sneijder; Huntelaar, Depay.
Spain: De Gea; Carvajal, Albiol, Piqué, Bernat: Fàbregas, Mario Suárez, Cazorla; Pedro, Juanmi, Isco.
It is never too easy to get excited by friendlies, particularly during these international weeks of football™, but among the likes of Liechtenstein v San Marino, Russia v Kazakhstan, Portugal v Cape Verde and, er, Italy v England a rare gem sporadically pops up. Holland v Spain. A repeat of last year’s amazing World Cup group game. A repeat of the 2010 World Cup final.
These are oddly worrying times for both sides. And there is plenty of pressure on both managers, Guus Hiddink and Vicente del Bosque, after less than impressive starts to their respective Euro 2016 qualification campaigns.
Johan Cryuff, never afraid to air a grievance or eight, was scathing in his De Telegraaf column after Holland’s 1-1 draw with Turkey. Klaaas-Jan Huntelaar scored in the final moments to earn a point that leaves them third in Group A, six points behind Czech Republic with seven points from five games.
“The defenders were only passing the ball to the midfielders and they then passed it back to the defenders. The people with little creativity were dictating play. This is not what you want. The problems only got bigger.
“After the level of the Eredivisie and the performances of the Dutch teams in the Champions League and Europa League, it is now clear where the national team stands as well. We are suffering all over the place and I really wonder when we will finally wake up.
“The main problem in Netherlands is education, the coaches and the education of the coaches. One thing is certain and that is that things need to change. Netherlands were a disgrace against Turkey.”
Spain, meanwhile, are three points behind Slovakia in Group C, having lost in Zilina earlier in the campaign. They could only scrape past Ukraine at home on Friday night, winning 1-0. Del Bosque is certainly feeling the squeeze. “Before, the criticism was always favourable, and now there is a lot of emphasis on the negative,” he said before tonight’s game in Amsterdam. “We have a very mature and fixed national team but we shouldn’t be satisfied with what has already been achieved. We have to be rebels as well.”
Team news to follow shortly. Kick-off is 8.45pm in Amsterdam, 7.45pm in London. Stay tuned to see if Holland wake up and if Spain can be rebels.
