In transition or when Ukraine played through the Dutch first line of press, spaces would open up to attack. As early as the fourth minute, the Netherlands could have scored the opener through Dumfries. Second minute, Dutch agressively press Ukraine’s buildup using man-marking.īecause the Netherlands have a lot of players that thrive in these kinds of high tempo, open, end-to-end matches, they were the better team in the opening stages. Both teams had their first dangerous moment in the box when the game was barely three minutes underway. As a result, the first half felt more like a game of basketball than a game of football.

Frank de Boer is not like most managers.įrom the very fist minute, the Netherlands’ defended using man-marking, which made for huge spaces to play in when bypassed. Most managers at EURO 2020 want to reduce the spaces in the middle of the pitch and want as little transitions as possible. The most familiar Ukrainian names could be found up front: Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Oleksandr Zubkov. In midfield, Serhiy Sydorchuk protected Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ruslan Malinovskyi. Ukraine manager Andriy Shevchenko fielded a quite traditional 4-3-3 formation, with a talented youngster of their own in central defense in 18-year-old Illya Zabarnyi. This meant the Netherlands’ formation could be seen as a 3-1-5-1 or 3-2-4-1 formation in possession. Up front, Memphis Depay was given complete freedom while Wout Weghorst acted as a more traditional number nine. In midfield, Marten de Roon and Frenkie de Jong played behind Georginio Wijnaldum. This meant Daley Blind, Stefan de Vrij and 19-year-old Jurriën Timber protected veteran goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg. When the opener against Ukraine was on the cards, De Boer decided to stick to his 5-3-2 starting formation, with Matthijs de Ligt missing out on injury. Seventeen million national coaches had discussed the pros and cons of 5-3-2 and 4-3-3 for weeks on end. Let alone in the run up to the first tournament in seven years, after two missed editions in 20. In what might be the nation most obsessed with football tactics, the national team’s way of playing is always heavily scrutinized before a tournament.

Tactical analysis and match report by Erik Elias.

When the dust had settled in, The Netherlands had erased Ukraine’s commendable comeback to start the tournament with three points thanks to a late winner from Denzel Dumfries. In the most entertaining game of EURO 2020 so far, the Netherlands’ tactical approach led to endless transitions, lots of individual players making their mark and five goals in one half.

Ukraine netherlands euro 2020