Netherlands and Austria will clash on Thursday, June 17, at Johan Cruijff Arena in their second fixture of EURO 2020. Having won their openers, a win here would guarantee one team a promotion into the knockout stage.
Netherlands vs Austria
When: Thursday, June 17 – 21:00 CEST
Where: Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam
Weather: Mostly sunny, 26°C
Referee: Orel Grinfeld (ISR)
Austria and Netherlands enter tonight’s match after securing all three points from their EURO 2020 openers. The Dutch beat Ukraine in a five-goal thriller, while Austria picked apart the EURO newcomers, North Macedonia.
Netherlands and Austria deserved to win last weekend, but the wins came more difficult than expected. In fact, both the Netherlands and Austria scored their winning goals late in the game. Another similarity is that both teams got a lead but then allowed the opposition to get even.
Dutch Fans Don’t Trust De Boer
Before 2020 EURO, the Dutch fans flew a plane over their team’s training ground, displaying a banner begging their coach to use the 4-3-3 tactic. Even though the Dutch perfected this strategy decades ago, Frank de Boer decided to try new things. His formation of choice? 5-3-2!
That didn’t backfire in the game against Ukraine, although the Dutch struggled more than expected. They gambled away a 2-0 lead, with their wing back scoring the winner and making it 3-2 in the 85th minute. Obviously, that made the Dutch fans feel uneasy, worrying about what’s going to happen in upcoming games.
Frank de Boer isn’t regarded as a top-class manager by any standards. As a reminder, he was in charge of Inter Milan for only 85 days before being sacked back in 2016. His next job was at Crystal Palace, where he got fired after 10 weeks. From there, he went to America before getting the role of the Netherlands national team manager in September 2020.
His record with the Dutch is pretty impressive (so far), but it probably has to do more with the players, not him. This team has some fantastic players. Unfortunately, the Oranje have some fitness concerns ahead of this match, with Matthijs de Ligt expected to miss another game. That said, we’ll probably see the same starting XI for the Dutch as we did in the Ukraine game.
Austria Got Their Tail Up
Austria’s 3-1 victory against North Macedonia marked Das Team’s first win at EURO in 31 years, however, it didn’t come easy. Austria grabbed an early lead in 18′ but conceded an equalizer via Goran Pandev in 28′ to enter the second half level at 1-1.
Austrians needed 33 minutes to find the net and make it 2-1. Then, eleven minutes later, they scored their third to seal the deal and secure all three points.
Marco Arnautovic scored the game-winning goal for his side but will serve a one-match ban after losing his head in his wild goal celebration. It involved insulting North Macedonia’s Ezgjan Alioski, and the officials weren’t having any of it.
Nevertheless, even without Arnautovic in the team, Austria has plenty of talent. Bayern Munich full-back David Alaba is likely their most famous player, but they got plenty of other Bundesliga stars in the squad – Marcel Sabitzer, Konrad Laimer, Stefan Lainer, Christoph Baumgartner, Sasa Kalajdzic, etc.
Netherlands vs Austria Betting Picks
Both teams have shown that they have solid frontlines but also somewhat leaky defences, which points towards a high-scoring affair.
The weather will be hot at the kick-off, but as time goes by, it should cool down, creating a perfect atmosphere for playing attacking football.
Pick: Over 2.5 Goals – 1.76 at Sportmarket
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