Netherlands coach Guus Hiddink was under a tremendous pressure following a run of poor results but the Oranje recorded a morale-boosting 2-0 friendly victory over Spain on Tuesday night to ease the pressure on their coach.
Netherlands were able to secure only a draw against Turkey in their Euro qualifier on Saturday and there were calls from the media for the sacking of Guus Hiddink. But two first half goals in the span of three minutes by Stefan De Vrij and Davy Klaasen helped Netherlands earn their second successive victory over Spain.
Stefan de Vrij opened the scoring for Netherlands through a fine header in the 13th minute while Davy Klaassen scored his first international goal at the Amsterdam ArenA after just three minutes.
Netherlands dominated the early part of the first half but Spain found their rhythm back after the 25th minute. The La Roja dominated the proceedings from there on but they failed to create any meaningful chances throughout the game.
Spain coach Del Bosque used an experimental squad in this game as Raul Albiol, Juan Bernat, Mario Suarez, Cazorla, Juanmi and Pedro Rodriguez got a rare place in the starting XI of La Roja. Juanmi made his debut for Spain in this game.
Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta, who surprisingly came in as a substitute in the 76th minute, was booed by the Netherlands fans for scoring in the 2010 World Cup final but Dutch coach Guus Hiddink expressed his anger against the behavior of Oranje fans.
“It’s a disgrace,” Guus Hiddink told reporters. “Iniesta is a world class player and a wonderful person. At first I didn’t notice it was about him. Was it because of his goal vs Netherlands in 2010?
“It’s unbelievable, this is about sport. What was he supposed to do? I can’t understand this.”
Guus Hiddink also said that in spite of Netherlandsa recent run of poor form, there is no pressure on his shoulders.
“I don’t have the feeling that there is pressure on my shoulders.
“I don’t want to fight against the media any more, I just want to stay focused on football. There are always stories in the press.a
Spain boss Vicente del Bosque was not happy with the result and said that they dominated the game and did not deserve to lose.
a It seemed impossible that we wouldna t score. The first 20 minutes burdened us,a he said after the game.
“We took control of the game, we were all over them, we reached their box [numerous times] but we lacked a goal.a
Del Bosque also criticized the behavior of Netherlands fans for their booing of Andres Iniesta.
a I thought the boos for Andres Iniesta were ironic, [considering the 2010 World Cup final].a