The Netherlands and France played an intriguing tactical clash in Group “D”, which ended 0-0 at the Red Bull Arena Stadium in Leipzig. Despite the lack of goals, the match offered a number of curious moments, including a scandalously disallowed goal for the “tulips” and a number of wasted chances.
The symbolic hosts will definitely have claims for their disallowed goal in the 69th minute, in which there were doubts about the correctness of the referees’ decision.
In view of Austria’s victory over Poland, achieved earlier, France leads the group with 4 points, followed by the Netherlands with the same score. In their next match, the “tulips” host Austria, while the “roosters” will face Poland.
The match started at a high tempo, and the “tulips” organized the first dangerous attack, in which flank player Jeremie Frimpong outran the French defense to take a shot, saved by goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
Didier Deschamps’ team did not break down from the strong start of the “tulips” and immediately tried to surprise their unpleasant opponent, when in the 4th minute star Antoine Griezmann found himself in a shooting position, prepared a shot, which Bart Verbruggen saved.
The “roosters” recovered from their weak start and missed a great chance within a few minutes. In the 12th minute, Antoine Griezmann broke free from the marking of Van Dijk and De Vrij to go one-on-one with Bart Verbruggen, but the striker failed to take a shot, allowing the players in orange to clear the ball.
To the delight of the neutral fans, the first half was accompanied by interesting goal-scoring situations in front of both goals. Cody Gakpo almost became the hero for the Netherlands, as in the 16th minute the winger advanced from the left, freed up space for himself to shoot, and then forced Mike Maignan to intervene.
Although the dynamics of the game dropped dramatically in the second half, the “roosters” in the person of Antoine Griezmann did not take advantage of their best chance in today’s clash. In the 64th minute, the Atletico Madrid striker received a leading pass from N’Golo Kante, but he did not put any power into his shot, allowing Bart Verbruggen to parry it.
In the 69th minute, the stadium briefly erupted in ecstasy when young talent Xavi Simons blasted a cannonball past Mike Maignan in seconds. However, it turned out that according to the VAR assistants, Denzel Dumfries had interfered with the goalkeeper and the goal was astonishingly not awarded. The replay put the referees’ arguments into doubt, as it clearly showed that the Inter player did not hinder the goalkeeper at all. Until the end of the match, both teams tried not to make any fatal mistakes.
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