Nations League Roundup: Netherlands close to group win, France beat Austria
Belgium - Wales 2-1
An eighth H2H meeting in nine years was started well by Wales, who had the better of the early exchanges against their familiar foes. The individual quality of the hosts turned the tide though, as Roberto Martínez’s men took the lead in the 11th minute. Michy Batshuayi found space in the right channel, before sliding the ball back to De Bruyne to produce an exquisite first-time finish.
The momentum was completely turned with the opening goal, leaving Wayne Hennessey trying to defend a Belgian barrage. Youri Tielemans and Batshuayi both missed big chances, De Bruyne struck the post, and Eden Hazard flashed wide before the inevitable second arrived. Again, it was the Manchester City maestro at the heart of it all, as his inch-perfect cross bisected the Welsh defence and goalkeeper, allowing Batshuayi a tap-in at the far post.
Robert Page’s men appeared to need a miracle to find a route back into the game. Fresh from receiving a new contract to remain at the Dragons’ helm, his team-talk proved inspirational, with the visitors reducing the arrears within five minutes of the restart. Brennan Johnson’s cross found target man Kieffer Moore, who made no mistake in steering his header past Thibaut Courtois.
The Welsh fightback appeared to spark life back into the hosts as they reasserted their authority, although they were denied a penalty after a VAR review found Joe Morrell’s challenge on De Bruyne to be legal. Wales would not lie down though, with Johnson testing Courtois as the visitors searched for an unlikely equaliser. Ultimately, Belgium held firm and set up a blockbuster clash with the Netherlands to decide who progresses to the semi-finals of the UNL, while Wales’ place in the top tier now hangs by a thread.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium)
Croatia - Denmark 2-1
The metronomic Luka Modrić was at the heart of a lengthy spell of possession in the opening period of play at the Stadion Maksimir. The hosts’ front foot start appeared to take the Danes by surprise, but the experience of the visitors helped them snatch a foothold in the game after the opening Croatian salvos.
A possession based game led to a dearth of high quality scoring chances, but thanks to some luck around the penalty area, the Croatians broke the deadlock within the opening five minutes of play in the second half. After pinballing around inside the area from a corner, the ball deflected out onto a platter for Borna Sosa, and the fullback calmly side-footed home to open the scoring. Sosa’s strike provided the wake-up call that the Danes needed to pull themselves back into the clash. While they managed to put together a lengthy spell of possession in the Croatian half, it took a Christian Eriksen stunner from 30 yards to level the scoreline.
Dramatically, the hosts responded within a matter of moments. After joining the game from the bench only 30 seconds earlier, Majer collected the ball on the edge of the box and slotted the ball into the bottom corner to reclaim Croatia’s lead in the final ten minutes, and send the Vatreni back to the summit in Group 1.
Having come into the night with a superb away record, only losing four of their last 22 games on the road, Denmark would have hoped for a sharper performance. But thanks to a good run of results in the early group games, they remain within touching distance of the final four if results go their way this weekend.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Luka Modrić (Croatia)
France - Austria 2-0
France had struggled to defend their UNL crown in the 2022/23 campaign with no victories in their first four matches. They almost got off to a perfect start but were denied a goal with less than two minutes on the clock when Kylian Mbappé’s goal was ruled out for offside. Austria found themselves at the mercy of an onslaught from Didier Deschamps’ side in the French capital. He was, however, dealt another injury blow following a whole host of injuries in the build-up to the international period, as this time, Jules Koundé was forced off with an apparent hamstring injury. With no sign of the hosts’ attacking dominance concluding, Patrick Pentz incredibly prevented Aurélien Tchouaméni’s outrageous overhead kick from opening the scoring.
Despite completely dominating proceedings at the Stade de France in the opening half, Les Bleus remained exasperated approaching HT, as Austria somehow survived the half without succumbing to the attacking onslaught. As a result, the visitors began the second half in complete contrast to how they started the first, but once again, the hosts came closest to opening the scoring as Jonathan Clauss fired over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy.
The visitors’ resolve was finally broken four minutes later when Mbappé displayed his world-class talent, running towards goal with five defenders around him, but he showed great composure before venomously striking past Pentz. A second goal followed less than 10 minutes later as Olivier Giroud towered above a statuesque Austria defence to direct a commanding header past Pentz to continue his renaissance in a Les Bleus jersey.
With the contest already decided, France remained relatively untroubled in the concluding embers as Les Bleus registered their first success of the current UNL campaign ahead of an encounter against Denmark on Sunday. Meanwhile, defeat for Austria ended Ralf Rangnick's side's aspirations of participating in the finals of the UNL next year, in addition to escalating Das Team’s chances of relegation to League B.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kylian Mbappé (France)
Poland - Netherlands 0-2
In a frantic start at the PGE Narodowy, the Netherlands suffered an early setback when Teun Koopmeiners was forced off after two minutes of play following a collision with Karol Linetty, being replaced by Steven Berghuis. Despite this, the Oranje conjured some scintillating passing passages, and moments after Daley Blind couldn’t turn in Berghuis’ cross, Cody Gakpo applied the finishing touch to Denzel Dumfries’ low ball - taking the 23-year-old to an impressive tally of eight goals in his last seven matches for club and country.
While Poland did a better job of limiting their visitors’ attacking threat throughout the rest of the half, they were also struggling to create and Piotr Zieliński’s quick thinking was required when Kamil Glik’s poor pass almost put him in trouble near his own goal. The Napoli midfielder’s talents were soon on show at the other end, as he turned majestically to start a move that culminated in Nicola Zalewski’s curling shot being saved by 38-year-old debutant Remko Pasveer.
Louis van Gaal suffered more injury frustration early in the second period as Memphis Depay - who had 14 goals and six assists from his previous 11 internationals - was forced off. Przemysław Frankowski’s cross gave Arkadiusz Milik a golden opportunity to compound that misery, but the HT substitute struck horribly over the crossbar. Steven Bergwijn was far more clinical on the hour mark, playing a one-two with Vincent Janssen before slotting the ball out of Wojciech Szczęsny’s reach, with five of his seven international goals now coming this calendar year.
After that moment, the Netherlands never looked like slipping up in their 14th consecutive match unbeaten, continuing their best run since going 17 without losing between 2012 and 2013, with a point against Belgium now enough to earn their second UNL finals appearance. Meanwhile, Poland have just two wins from eight UNL home matches since its inaugural campaign and face Wales in a battle to stay in League A.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Denzel Dumfries (Netherlands)