UEFA Nations League 2018-19, Netherlands 2-0 France: 5 takeaways from the match

The penultimate clash in Group A of League 1 involved a battle between two young sides, the Dutch and the French.

The reigning world champions only needed a point to go through to the semi-final stage, but just like their counterparts in Group C, Spain, they also fell to a defeat, with all to play for on the final matchday.

The 2 nil defeat means that the Germans are now relegated. The semifinal spot is still up for grabs, and a draw in Germany will mean that the Dutch go through. The relatively young and inexperienced Dutch side schooled the World Champions. Their main players couldn't make any notable impact on the game.

Georginio Wijnaldum put the home team in front at the stroke of half-time, and The Netherlands tried to seal the game multiple times, but it was late into stoppage time before Memphis Depay scored from the spot.

France now has to hope that the lacklustre Germans defeat the Dutch. Didier Deschamps started with the unimpressive Giroud once again, keeping young Ousmane Dembele on the bench, raising a few eyebrows, and the preference of Kimpembe over Laporte was as questionable.

We talk the game over in 5 points.

#5 Big names fail to impress

Varane - reportedly top 3 in Ballon d'Or, but miserable on the night

It was revealed a few days back that Raphael Varane and Kylian Mbappe are at second and third spot respectively after half the Ballon d'Or votes had been counted. Antoine Griezmann will also find himself in the top 10.

The big name players are bound to make an impact, but none of the three star players made a difference. Raphael Varane carried his poor league form into the national side. He was the senior player at the defensive end, but he was sloppy at the back, and failed to stop the menacing attacks coming in from the resurgent Dutch team.

Kylian Mbappe was having a poor day. Coming up against the strong forces of the Dutch defense was a completely different experience than his routine Ligue 1 defenses, and he couldn't do much on the ball.

He was always under the watchful eyes of Matthijs De Ligt, and couldn't drag the defense out of position. Of the three dribbles he tried, he was dispossessed on all occasions. He had one wayward shot at goal, and that capped off a poor night.

Antoine Griezmann had only one early header at goal. He was contributing a bit more to the defense than Mbappe, but failed in his primary role of a #10. He had no dribbles, and only two total shots at goal.

A bad day for those who are going to be labeled the best of 2018.

Aside those three, the other star players like Nzonzi, Kante, and Matuidi had no answers to the young Dutch midfield. All in all, the big names failed to make even a bit of impact.

#4 The story of two defenses

While the Dutch captain Virgil Van Dijk and his back four held strong on the night, the French back four had a very long night.

Early on in the game, the Dutch had to face two or three counter-attacks, and they were very much up to the task. Van Dijk showcased his strong muscles against Giroud and Griezmann, while De Ligt completely shadowed Mbappe.

The Dutch full-backs, Dumfries and Blind, did very well in tracking back and clearing dangerous balls.

Kylian Mbappe couldn't outpace the Dutch defenders even once, they didn't fail for pace, even one bit. There was not even one incident when the defense was completely opened up. Jasper Cillessen was at ease because of his resistant defense.

On the other end, things were falling apart for the French. They lacked defensive communication all night, and they were conservative for most of the game. They just let the Dutch pass around with seemingly no danger.

However, the Dutch attacked out of nothing with one good pass, opening up the spaces. Dumfries in particular, caused a lot of problems on the wings. There was no problem for the Dutch to bypass the defense and have a go at goal.

They had a mammoth 18 attempts on goal, of which 11 came from open play. The first goal itself was due to lack of communication. An inadvertent header fell right to Babel, the defense failed to clear the danger, and Wijnaldum caught them ball-watching.

While the Dutch built a wall, the French couldn't do anything but sit back and defend another attempt at goal.

#3 The fearsome French attack not so frightening

While it is true that the Dutch defense was at their very best, they had nothing much to do after the first half. The first half saw France attacking on the counter, but there was none of that in the second.

They only had 2 shots on target the whole night, and there were only 7 attempts made overall, 4 of those came off set-pieces.

This was an issue that stayed hidden during the World Cup campaign, but it always persisted. Mbappe can always run at defenses, but when he came up against Van Dijk, he was silenced just like in the UEFA Champions League match against Liverpool.

France did score four goals past Argentina, but Argentina was a disorganised team with no real threat. Their players were very slow and couldn't stop any sort of counter-attack. Other than the Argentina game, France scored 4 in the finals. How? One penalty and two long shots.

Even then they didn't have the creativity to open up the defense. The long shots beat a blinded Subasic. They trusted the set-piece against Belgium, and against Uruguay as well. This is by no means to undermine their World Cup campaign, this is just a look into the fact that their attack is not at all a ruthless one.

The game against The Netherlands was just another instance which showcased the fact. France is not at all organised in attack, and Deschamps is not an attacking coach as well. This issue persisted all along the World Cup from the group stage to the final, and even till now.

Deschamps has to fix the issue as soon as possible, because not all defenses will let Mbappe run riot. The defenses which are good and can track back quickly will put a stop to the counter, so they need new ways of scoring, other than set-pieces and Mbappe's pace.

#2 Hugo Lloris: The sole performer for France

Absolutely no one considers Hugo Lloris a good performer when compared to others. At Tottenham, people expect more from Kane and Eriksen rather than their keeper. France hopes for good performances from Varane, Kante, Mbappe, and Griezmann, not Lloris.

However, Lloris is a person who performs on every night, but has to come under fire for mistakes like any other keeper.

Lloris might not be among the best goalkeepers right now, but he was the sole performer for the French on the night. With the defense doing little to stop the rampant attacks, he had to make a lot of saves.

Lloris made 9 humongous saves on the night, including a brilliant double save, and he could have salvaged a point all alone. But a penalty and the failure of the defense to clear the immediate danger after he saved the shot for the first goal, cost the team dearly.

Of the 9 saves he made, almost 6 to 7 shots were open for the Dutch players who had a lot of space and time. Lloris was the only good performer for France on the night, as it was literally Lloris vs The Netherlands.

Possibly a 9/10 performance.

#1 Possession football played the right way

The Oranje playing possession football to its best

The Dutch haven't experienced much success in recent years. They had failed to reach Euro 2016 and FIFA World Cup 2018, but now the team has younger players who are hungry for success. Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, etc all have been replaced by a younger pool of players.

With the appointment of Ronald Koeman as the coach, Netherlands look good for a bright future. And not only are they yielding results, but they are also doing it the way the godfather told them to.

Johan Cruyff wanted beautiful football, The Netherlands are playing beautiful football. Koeman has played under Cruyff, and is looking to instill possession-based football in the team.

Against France, it was played to perfection. The attack, the defense, the midfield, everyone was on the same wavelength to play the possession game.

While The Netherlands passed around, very patiently looking for opportunities, the French grew impatient with time, and mistakes began to come. The ability of the youngsters to be this patient is credited to the coach, and possession is nothing without patience.

Although The Netherlands didn't create many chances in the first half, they mentally conquered their opponents, and didn't get frustrated for not getting goals. In the second half, France grew more desperate and hurled everything at the Dutch. However, the Dutch easily controlled the game with the ball, and this time they had the shots to show for it.

The type of game the Dutch played conquered the world champions with ease. They played possession football, not for its sake, but to win with quality.