Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 7:23 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 19:27

The the Dutch Women were unable to convince in a friendly international match against Italy on Thursday evening. The team of the departing national coach Sarina Wiegman showed a particularly poor appearance in the Stadio Paolo Mazza in Ferrara and eventually had to bend 1-0 due to a utilized penalty from Cristiana Girelli. On June 15, the the Dutch squad will play its next exhibition game. Then in the Grolsch Veste in Enschede Norway, the opponent will be the opponent during the last showdown in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Wiegman had to deal with a major setback before the first whistle, when Vivianne Miedema turned out not to be fit enough to participate. A big loss, as the striker has scored in all her three previous encounters with the Italians (four times in total). Lieke Martens was kept on the bench by Wiegman. In an unexciting first half, Italy was awarded a penalty after fifteen minutes of play. After a free kick about twenty meters from Sari van Veenendaal’s goal, the the Dutch could not get the ball out of the penalty area, after which Renate Jansen committed a foul on Arianna Caruso and Monika Mularczyk pointed to the spot. Girelli then pushed the ball into the left corner: 0-1.

Without Miedema and Martens, the Dutch national team did not succeed in making a fist in an attacking sense. Attacks failed at an early stage and in many cases final passes did not arrive. The first danger on behalf of the the Dutch followed on the stroke of half-time, when Katja Snoeijs controlled the ball beautifully, but saw her shot narrowly blocked. The rebound was not for Danielle van de Donk. In the second half, the Netherlands performed better. Wiegman brought in Jill Roord for Jackie Groenen and Dominique Janssen replaced Stefanie van der Gragt. After the break, however, the greatest threat came from Sisca Folkertsma.

The right wing defender of FC Twente frequently steamed up to interfere with the attacking game and delivered a perfect pass to Van der Donk after just under an hour of play. The latter still got a toe against the ball, but was unable to give her effort enough power. Shanice van de Sanden was also very happy in the finish five minutes before the end, when she hit the ball completely wrong in a promising position. The Italians then got room to close the game in the switch, but ran into Van Veenendaal twice. The victory was no longer in danger for the Italians.