Ibrahim Afellay praises Justin Bijlow after the quarter final at the European Under-21 Championship against Young France (2-1) won by the Juniors. The analyst of the NOS believes that the Feyenoord goalkeeper has made his place in the base at the expense of Kjell Scherpen, who played the group stage. “He was very good,” said Afellay.
“What he had to do, he did an excellent job”, the former midfielder continues. “He has also shown that he is there when he is tested. The long shot for the opening goal (by Jonathan Ikoné, ed.) He took fantastic. And in the second half he took a shot (by Faitout Maouassa, ed.) a lot of certainty. He is a boy who has a lot of confidence and charisma. It is understandable that they are very happy with him at Feyenoord and see a lot of future in him. ”
Theo Janssen is also impressed by Bijlow. “He is absolutely the best goalkeeper of the young generation,” says Janssen. “It is not without reason that we discussed in advance whether he should be with the Dutch national team. I think that if he had been fit for a whole season, that call might have been even greater.” Afellay thinks that Bijlow is benefiting from his call for the Dutch Juniors instead of the big Dutch national team. “This is of course fine for him. He can now show himself to all of Europe on the highest podium and that is also fantastic for Feyenoord. He would not have played at the tournament with the Dutch national team anyway,” said the former PSV ‘ there.
Afterwards, Bijlow himself appeared in front of the camera with a broad smile NOS. “In the last phase it was mainly a stop and if you can score in the counter in the last minute, then that is nice”, said the goalkeeper, who introduced the winning goal of Myron Boadu in injury time with a quick throw-in. “I was fucked up by Calvin (Stengs, ed.), The moment before. I saw him now free again, so I thought I would throw him in. It resulted in a goal, which is great.” Stengs passed the ball to Justin Kluivert, who in turn laid wide on the sliding Boadu.
“That is typical Justin”, national coach Erwin van de Looi responds to the second goal of his team. “He is not only good at goalkeeping, but also has an eye for what happens afterwards. Calvin is someone who wants to play football as soon as we have the ball. You saw that he was still quite hard.”