Netherlands defeat France, Germany relegated from Nation League's top tier
Netherlands put up an impressive performance last night against France as they defeated the world champions with a scoreline of 2-0. Goals came from Wijnaldum and Depay in the match, which saw them seal their position in the next level of the competition. Germany, five points behind Netherlands with one match at hand, have been relegated to the lower tier. Details follow.
The coach of Netherlands, Ronald Koeman, understood the defensive frailties of France and capitalized on it. Netherlands went for a complete possession-based game in direct opposition to France's counter-attacking football. France's weakness was fully utilized as Netherlands waited for a French central mid-fielder to make an error. Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Light, Virgil van Dijk were the fulcrum for Netherlands.
2017 Confederations Cup was the last time Germany showed their class. They had won the competition without many of their players from the 2014 World Cup title campaign. Since then, Germany have seen a steady fall, exiting the 2018 World Cup from the group stage and now being relegated from the Nations League's top tier. Germany have joined Iceland and Poland among relegated nations.
Joachim Low opened up after the news of relegation, saying that Germany have to accept the painful relegation from the UEFA Nations League. Before the Netherlands vs France encounter, Germany triumphed over Russia in a friendly, but all hopes dimmed after news of their relegation. Low remains confident that Germany will qualify for Euro 2020 and wants to incorporate younger players into the team.
The German football team has played 12 matches in 2018, and managed to win just four. Moreover, three of those four matches were friendlies against Saudi Arabia, Peru, and Russia. While the Germans will be joining the League B, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Denmark are teams which could qualify for League A. Reportedly, German football authorities are still backing Low to continue as coach.
