Attack-minded Holland looking shaky at the back

Friday, 30 May 2008

Holland showed worrying defensive frailties in their 1-1 Euro 2008 warm up international friendly draw against Denmark here on Thursday night.

Though Marco van Basten's men showed touches of superb technique, their back line, especially central defensive pairing John Heintiga and Joris Mathysen, looked vulnerable at times.

However, van Basten, who was an integral part of the Dutch side that won the 1988 European title scoring an extraordinary goal in the victory over the then Soviet Union, said he was on the whole satisfied with the overall performance.

"We learn a lot from these type of matches," said van Basten, who will step down after the tournament and take over at Ajax.

"We had problems in the second-half. Physically, we were not as strong as in the first-half.

"We lost a lot of duels. That is explained by the hard training we have been doing over the last few days. The players are a little tired. However, what is more important is that we are ready for June 9 (their opening match against world champions Italy."

Holland went ahead on the half hour in front of 35,000 supporters at the Philipstadion. Wesley Sneijder found Arjen Robben, on the edge of Denmark's box, who found Ruud van Nistelrooy in space, leaving him to fire under Denmark keeper Thomas Sorensen.

The goal was the reward for van Basten's attacking strategy with four attacking-style players with Sneijder, Robben and Rafael Van der Vaart supporting van Nistelrooy.

Key striker Robin van Persie, although technically recovered from his thigh injury, was not considered ready to play in the fixture.

Van Basten may be playing a positive mix of players up front but there were worries in the backline.

The central defensive pairing of Heintiga and Mathysen did not look solid and made several postional and marking errors, particularly for Denmark's equalising goal.

Mathysen made a schoolboy error to be surprised by Nicklas Bendtner, who fed Christian Poulsen, leaving him to fire home from six metres in the 56th minute.

"It would be hard on the defense, especially Mathysen, to blame them for the goal," said van Basten.

"The midfield did not do their job in the build-up to the goal and it has to be said that the Danes put together a nice move and rounded it off with a good goal."

Netherlands: Van der Sar, Ooijer (De Jong 46), Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst, Van der Vaart (Kuyt 65), De Zeeuw, Sneijder (Afellay 82), Engelaar (De Cler 65), Robben (Babel 77), Van Nistelrooy (Vennegoor of Hesselink 65).

Denmark: Christiansen, Kvist Jørgensen (Rasmussen 82), Andreasen (Christensen 77), Krøldrup, Lars Jacobsen, Kahlenberg (Tomasson 46), Poulsen, Jørgensen (Retov 63), Rommedahl, Bendtner, Perez (Vingaard 77).