Virgil van Dijk: ‘There is no excuse for this’ | Football

sport">“It was a very mediocre match,” said the captain of the Dutch national team after the match against the WE. “We just couldn’t put pressure on them,” Van Dijk refers to the players from Italy who were constantly on the move. „In the second half there was a bit more spice on our part. We had a number of dangerous moments ourselves, but it just has to be better than what we have shown today. ”

sport">The Orange was occasionally defected in the first half. Van Dijk explains: „They have a lot of moving players, who run from left to right and choose a good position. We didn’t get any pressure on it. That was tricky. The second half we took a little more risk with the pressure, but it was not good enough ”sighs Van Dijk.

sport">For example, the Orange ended the international period in the Nations League – after first a victory over Poland – with a defeat, much to the disappointment of Van Dijk. “We try to do it with all our might and that is tiring. There is no excuse for this. We know that Italy is a good team and that it will be difficult. We also get annoyed by the referee’s decisions. They will then have more experience in this. ”

Lodeweges: ‘Lost to a better opponent’

sport">“We lost to a very good team,” said ad-interim national coach Dwight Lodeweges. “Basically they want to do the same things we do, but they did it better.” Lodeweges is referring to the moving players of Italy. The fast and dynamic game. “The rooms became too big. We didn’t help each other enough, although we worked really hard for it. ”

sport">Lodeweges experiences hard work as positive, but it also has a negative aspect. “We walked around three strokes. Then the pipe is also quickly empty. We were therefore not fresh in possession. We didn’t do that well. ”

sport">Lodeweges continues: „In the end we simply lost to a top opponent. That is not fun, but it is good to learn from it. We want to do the same as they do. They just do a lot better. We can take a few more steps in this regard. ”

Just defeat

sport">Frenkie de Jong could not help but conclude that the Dutch national team has rightly lost to Italy. “They predominated,” said the FC Barcelona midfielder. “Especially in the first half, that’s just the case.”

sport">“They quickly put pressure on us,” said De Jong. “They played us apart like that. When we had the ball, we were often far apart. Then it is difficult to play football. We didn’t get around to playing football that way. We wanted to, but it didn’t work. ”

sport">Italy is a strong opponent, De Jong analyzed. “But this doesn’t mean much to me either. This says nothing about our qualities. We will have to do better in the away game. We have to talk about that again. ”

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