Netherlands – Italy PREDICTIONS / 28.03.2017
Preview
The Netherlands last Saturday unexpectedly lost two-nil away against Bulgaria, reducing even further the already remaining hopes of direct qualification to the World Cup in 2018. It is a particularly bad time for the Netherlands: after failing to qualify for Europeans of 2016 – despite the team admitted they were even twenty-four and no longer just sixteen, as in the past – the path to the World Cup in Russia is increasingly uphill: as in every round, to qualify directly will be only the first classified and in Holland group is currently in command of France at an altitude of 13 points, six more of Holland, the fourth time and even preceded by Sweden and Bulgaria. Already reached the second place and play any playoffs at this point would be a positive result, to try, however, will no longer be the coach Danny Blind who was sacked after the defeat in Bulgaria awaiting the Fed will choose the new coach, in bench in the friendly against Italy will Grim.
And to think that the Netherlands three years ago threatened to win the World Cup of 2014, coming in third place, only semi-final defeat to Argentina on penalties. In recent years the main problem of Holland were the constant injuries of its two most charismatic players and strong – Strootman and Robben – the lack of a good center-backs and broken promises from some players that seemed could become samples but have since failed, type Jaanmat, Luuk de Jong, Lens, Bas Dost and so on. It should also be noted as the coach of Blind was not really the kind of charismatic coach can lead the group as did Van Gaal at the World Cup, he has made several bad choices, the last to deploy holder in central defense seventeen year old Matthijs de Ligt in a game as sensitive as in Bulgaria, a choice that turned out to be wrong since the opponents’ goal arrived just as many mistakes on the Ajax player.
It is also hard to imagine what training will be playing for Holland in this game where there will be an interim coach, however, it is not so obvious that Italy will win easily, even in this match – which is still friendly – the reasons may be greater because of the Dutch players which also play at home (Amsterdam ArenA) where you will not want to collect yet another poor showing last disastrous time.
The technical commissioner Italy Ventura on the other side will use this friendly to try the 3-5-2, so changing pattern than the 4-4-2 seen very offensive against Albania. In goal there sarà Donnarumma instead of Buffon, defense Rugani, Bonucci and Romagnoli, the midfielders Zappacosta right and Darmian left, De median Rossi in front of the defense with Verratti and Parolo deployed by internal and torque Building-Eder forward . It will be a pretty competitive team, but to understand what attitude will the players on the pitch after the brilliant success on Albania: the championship is near, at the gates there are very important games for their club membership, and Italy is traditionally allergic to friendly, in which historically has a yield lower than that which ensures in official matches. In the past Italy has ten friendlies played, he won only twice, among other things, against opponents to reach as Scotland and Finland, losing to Portugal, Belgium, Germany and France.
Probable Lineups Netherlands – Italy
NETHERLANDS: Cillesen, Karsdorp, Martins Indi, Hoedt, Daley Blind, Sneijder, de Roon, Wijnaldum, Promes, Dost, Depay
ITALY: Donnarumma, Rugani, Bonucci, Romagnoli, Zappacosta, Parolo, De Rossi, Verratti, Insigne, Eder, Still.
