The Dutch Juniors played a draw against their peers in Switzerland on Friday evening. Erwin van de Looi’s team fell twice behind in the away game and managed to avoid its first defeat in European Championship qualification thanks to two goals from Joshua Zirkzee: 2-2. The Dutch Juniors have four points in Group E after two games and are fourth. Switzerland tops the table with seven points from three matches.
Early in the game, the Dutch Juniors thought they would take the lead, when Jurgen Ekkelenkamp tapped in the rebound after a stopped free kick by Joshua Zirkzee. However, the goal was wrongly disallowed for offside and there was no VAR to rectify that. Brian Brobbey then broke through after a good pass from Melayro Bogarde, after which the striker shot at goalkeeper Amir Saipi from a difficult angle.
Joshua Zirkzee saves the Dutch Juniors from a defeat in Switzerland! Watch the attacker’s two goals here?? pic.twitter.com/Bi1Yke9p26
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) October 8, 2021
The Swiss occasionally did something back and saw a shot by Kastriot Imeri after a conquest in the build-up hit the top of the bar. The Dutch Juniors had to deal with a hefty setback after half an hour, when Brobbey had to leave the field with an injury. The Swiss took advantage of the brief moment that the Dutch Juniors had ten men because of Brobbey’s failure. Dan Ndoye made a short turn on the right at Ian Maatsen and saw his cross being headed in by Noah Okafor, who was ahead of Jeremie Frimpong. Before halftime, the Netherlands hit the post via Joshua Zirkzee after a low cross from Frimpong.
Four minutes after the break, Bogarde’s loss of ball led to greater damage to the Dutch Juniors. Imeri then cleverly outplayed Botman and fired a hard shot, which Scherpen narrowly tapped into the crossbar. In the rebound, Okafor was able to complete his second inside: 2-0. The Swiss then left the Juniors alive, because Ndoye shot at Scherpen from a difficult angle and Okafor shot past the front of the penalty area.
The Dutch Juniors came back into the game in no time thanks to two corner kicks, both of which were taken by Maatsen. At the first extended Ekkelenkamp the ball with a heel, after which Zirkzee was able to tap the ball in at the far post. The goalscorer made his second of the evening with the head six minutes later: 2-2.
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