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

#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.