Tuesday night was very important for Dutch football. If the country’s national team had lost against Sweden, even away from home, or drew and failed to put in a good performance, then the downer on the team would have grown even further.
Danny Blind would have seen his position as manager under even greater pressure, and the country’s players could have been forgiven for fearing the next international break.
As it was, the Netherlands could only manage a draw, with Wesley Sneijder scoring their equaliser after a brilliant earlier finish from Sweden’s Marcus Berg.
But the result didn’t tell the full story, and the Dutch team very much deserved to win. Bas Dost had a goal inexplicably ruled out in injury time, and the Netherlands will feel hard done to.
But there are signs of of some kind of a revival and Tottenham’s Vincent Janssen will be central to it.
He spoke to Dutch TV after the match and has been quoted by De Telegraaf as saying: “We played well. I thought our three classes better than Sweden.
“We played in a way you could say was worthy of the Dutch national team.”
