Immediately after the kick-off, the Orange opted for a long ball on Denzel Dumfries, who headed the ball through and thus enabled Memphis Depay to score the 3-2. “They had agreed that they were going to do this, I hadn’t said anything. It’s fantastic that it works out like this,” said Van Gaal, who praised the self-reliance of his players.
The national coach said at the NOS that this way of building had been trained. “Then Dumfries is the emergency solution. He did it all right. Memphis then scored to equalize Huntelaar. Great that it all turned out like this. Although I thought we were entitled to the win. It wasn’t a penalty at all for Wales either. I can’t believe the referee gave it.” Gareth Bale scored the equalizer from 11 meters, but immediately afterwards the Orange forced the 3-2.
Orange captain De Ligt: nice victory after a tough season
The Orange squad has won a difficult, yet beautiful victory against Wales (3-2) in the Nations League. That said captain Matthijs de Ligt. “It’s great that we’re still winning after a very tough season. We have shown ‘spirit’ again. We should be happy.”
The fact that the Netherlands gave away a 2-0 lead was less good. De Ligt: „We ran out quickly, but they made the 2-1 just a little too quickly. As a result, perhaps a little bit of fear crept into the team. We then search in vain for the 3-1, but in the final phase we concede a penalty. But we shouldn’t have let it get to this point.”
De Ligt thought it was fantastic that the Orange still won in extra time after Gareth Bale’s equalizer. „We immediately used the long ball in the last minute, un-Dutch actually. Then Memphis Depay also manages to score. That is amazing.”
Match winner Depay: nice how we do this again
Match winner Memphis Depay was proud of how the Dutch national team still won (3-2) against Wales in the last seconds. “Great how we are still dragging this out,” said the attacker at the NOS. “It says a lot about the team. We want to win. Once again we showed a great mentality.”
In the previous game with Poland (2-2) the Orange did not win because Depay missed a penalty just before time. “Then we were all disappointed in the dressing room, now it’s party time. But that’s football. It’s all part of it. But it is very nice that we are now closing with this victory.”