Stekelenburg slip-up costs Holland: 1-1

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Holland have not managed to win their game in Tunisia tonight.

In a sometimes very rough game substitute Klaas Jan Huntelaar put Holland ahead on the hour but a slight mistake by goal keeper Maarten Stekelenburg let Saihi equalize only 5 minutes later.

The game Tunisia-Holland was labeled 'Friendly', but friendliness was nowhere to be found in the 7 November Stadium in Tunis tonight.

The home team were hacking and chopping away all night and every Dutchman who threatened to get away was brought down in some other manner.

It all lead to a lot of irritation in the Dutch squad which was expressed by John Heitinga elbowing down Chermiti after half an hour of play.

The incident went unnoticed by the inconsistent referee El Fatah, but it did spark Chermiti to launch an all-out assault on the legs of Heitinga a little later who could only just jump to safety and avoid a serious injury.

Bert van Marwijk had to get up from his bench and calm down Heitinga who was enraged by the onslaught.

In the first half fouls determined the face of the game and good football was nowhere to be seen.

Still Holland were the better side without creating much danger.

A goal by Heitinga was rightly denied for offside.

At the back Holland had few problems so that Edson Braafheid had a quiet debut.

The FC Twente left back had a nervous start but played a solid game after that.

After the break chances were few as well but Holland did manage to score.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar, replacing Dirk Kuyt at half-time, volleyed home a Rafael van der Vaart header in the 61st minute, taking keeper Kasraoui by surprise.

The Real Madrid striker scored his 11th goal in his 19th game for Holland.

Given the poor display of the Tunisians the 1 goal should have been enough to win the game but a mistake by Ajax keeper Maarten Stekelenburg gave the North Africans more than they deserved.

The Ajax stopper misjudged a wobbly distant shot by Saihi.

It was not the first mistake by Stekelenburg in recent weeks, as he has been on poor form since he came back from an injury.

In the last 20 minutes Holland made some feint attempts to score again but the real motivation was gone.

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