Despite Netherlands emerging as the winning side taking on Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium the other night, their boss Danny Blind was not a happy man as he believed it could have been a clean sheet and it’s only because of slight faults in the defence that the margin of win got diminished.
The Oranje saw two goals getting scored against them and both of them were off free kicks which according to Blind, could have been avoided if the defence had been tighter in its work.
In the words of Blind, “To concede a couple in that fashion, it’s irritating and it’s not the first time. Even in the qualifiers, there were occasions when it happened. It’s an area which needs improvement.”
“We had a decent beginning and then we let the momentum slip away and we were actually under pressure at one point of time. So, while, it’s good to win, you also have to be realistic and acknowledge the mistakes.”
Speaking about Arjen Robben, who was the hero of the Dutch win with two successful strikes into the net, the manager said, “He’s one of our top players. He brings immense quality to the table.”
Robben will return to the cub duty now and thus, Netherlands will have to do without his services in the Germany game which is going to take place the coming week.
When asked about that, Blind said, “It’s certainly disappointing from our point of view that he won’t play that game.”
This Wales game was Netherlands’ first after their European Championships qualifying campaign where they failed losing half of their games and finishing at no. 4 in Group A.
The teams which advanced from Group A were Czech Republic (which also topped the group), Iceland and Turkey.