Although the Greek national team took a 2-0 lead at Toumba, they were unable to hold on to the three points, and the Dutch came away with a point (2-2) thanks to their second-half comeback.
Among the standout players for the “Oranje” was right back Denzel Dumfries, who had two goals disallowed for offside. However, the first one sparked a debate among the Dutch, and he himself clearly disputed the decision by referee Marco Guida.
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“The defender had complete control of the ball—I told the referee that too. He’s simply controlling the ball, so a new play begins. It’s clear to me that this was the crucial moment. He could have simply cleared the ball, but he didn’t. Therefore, in my opinion, it wasn’t offside,” the Real Madrid player stated.
As for purely tactical matters, Dumfries noted that the Netherlands needs to get off to a better start in its matches… “That’s not the way to start; we saw that against Germany, too. We have to call a spade a spade. In the first half, we weren’t as prepared as we needed to be. Under no circumstances do we want to start the game sluggishly, but during the first half you realize that you’re losing the one-on-one battles and that the opponent is finding their rhythm. You concede two goals due to avoidable mistakes, and then things get very difficult,” he said initially.
“In the second half, we came out with the right energy. At halftime, there’s naturally some frustration, even among ourselves. You have to quickly forget the first half—that’s what we said. We all deserve credit for not getting discouraged and not letting our heads drop,” he added.
*photo source: AP
