The Netherlands thought they had done the hardest twice this evening but Japan came back twice in 45 minutes.
A boring first period
The first period between two nations in the world top 20 was quite dull with very clear ball possession in favor of the Batavians (nearly 70%), but which did not really lead to very concrete actions.
It was different as soon as we returned from the locker room. The Netherlands opened the scoring in the 51st minute. On a perfect cross from Gravenberch, Virgil van Dijk carefully headed the ball away from goalkeeper Suzuki.
From the show in 2nd grade
Japan did not let itself be taken down and responded in the 57th minute by Nakamura with a nice shot that was slightly deflected by one of his teammates.
Ronald Koeman’s men enjoyed this equalizer moderately and in the 64th minute, Luke Summerville curled in a shot from the left for 2-1. But full of good will, the Blue Samurai managed to level the score through Kamada in the 89th. The Crystal Palace player’s header caught the Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
The two other teams in the group, Sweden and Tunisia, face each other tonight.
