Maestro Rangnick, four years ago one step away from Milan before the Rossoneri confirmed Stefano Pioli, has done it again: a sumptuous performance from his Austria who beat the Netherlands 3-2 and not only goes through to the European Championship, but they do it first in group D. Oranje instead third and in the repechage tuna. A football lesson in any case from the German coach to his colleague Koeman, pinched on more than one occasion on the bench with the blank look of someone who wasn’t understanding anything: for Arnautovic and his teammates a result that could have been even better, the demonstration of what it means to have an organized team even without huge names. Then of course, the Netherlands took a lot of effort to start 6 minutes after Malen’s absurd own goal. Passages from memory on the one hand, extreme confusion on the other, mitigated by the quality of the Dutch squad. Behind, meanwhile, Holland was dancing. The hole that led to Schmid’s 2-1 was embarrassing, caught all alone in the center of the area after the defense had collapsed on Baumgartner; even worse was Van Dijk’s blunder, who made a mistake at the offside line and allowed Sabitzer to go on to make it 3-2 almost from the goal line. Even before Depay’s 2-2 with a mysterious VAR check due to a non-existent handball by the attacker.
Perhaps too hot not only for the players, forced to stop to hydrate in a scorching Berlin, but also for
referee Kruzliak.
Yesterday was the 36th anniversary of the Netherlands’ victory at the 1988 European Championship, that of Van Basten’s marvelous goal in the final against the Soviet Union. Let’s say they could have celebrated it better.
