Orange misses Nations League final after Croatian final blow in extension

• Jesse Wieten

  Dutch national team editor

The Dutch national team failed to reach the Nations League final. In De Kuip, the Dutch bowed to Croatia in an exciting battle after extension: 2-4. Noa Lang had forced an extension with the 2-2 well into injury time. The final chord, however, was for Croatian standout Luka Modric.

Ronald Koeman wanted the Dutch to put something right after the loss to France (4-0) and the mediocre display against Gibraltar (3-0) at the start of the coach’s second term in March. Something different he wanted to see, more energy above all.

The national coach opted for his fittest players, for those in form, for Lutsharel Geertruida, for Mats Wieffer, for Teun Koopmeiners, for Xavi Simons, for Donyell Malen. Kicking off was the youngest Orange since October 2018 with an average age of 25 years and 143 days. New momentum.

The Orange players initially showed that the message had arrived. There was energy and at times good soccer. Simons, Gakpo and Malen regularly troubled the Croatian defense with their speed, as Simons was served by a superb pass from Virgil van Dijk and Wieffer sent Malen away.

And where Geertruida did not hesitate to shift to midfield at Koeman’s behest, the midfield often connected well with the attack. And so a difficult team to play for Croatia was created and the Netherlands was threatening not only in depth, but also through the combination.

The opening goal came from one such moment. Cody Gakpo weeked out to the side, found Simons, after which Nathan Aké played through to the forward Wieffer and the latter remained calm and moved the ball to Malen. The latter shot into the far corner.

The goals was received with great joy by Koeman and consorts on the bench. There was a similar moment at the stroke of halftime, with Simons, Gakpo, Wieffer and finishing Malen. This time the Borussia Dortmund right-winger was not effective.

Although Orange made a good and fresh impression, the Croatians did not let themselves down in the solid game full of fierce duels. The combinations and actions were occasionally too much for Orange, but in the final phase the Croatians lacked carefulness, especially the agile striker Andrej Kramaric.

Croatia’s captain Modric found the net with a volley, but that goal did not go through because before that Mario Pasalic had hit Aké’s head on a turnover. Thus, the Orange went to rest with a lead.

The second half immediately presented a different picture. Croatia started strongly and put the Netherlands under pressure. Although that left nothing to worry about for Orange, things soon went wrong. Gakpo lost the ball unnecessarily to Modric and then held the Croatian down. Penalty kick.