The Dutch national team continues to score high after a difficult start

The Dutch national team recorded a comfortable practice victory over Scotland on Friday evening. National coach Ronald Koeman's team did not always play convincingly, but threw away all trepidation in the last quarter. Thanks to an excellent Tijjani Reijnders, the score rose to 4-0.

Koeman surprised with his line-up by starting Jeremie Frimpong, Xavi Simons and Georginio Wijnaldum. Frimpong was given a deep, hanging role on the right side and played as a disguised right winger.

For Wijnaldum it was his first international match in nine months. The Al-Ettifaq midfielder is still in good standing with Koeman and had to form a tandem with Memphis Depay, but in practice little came of that.

The Scots had more ball possession than expected in the initial phase. The Dutch team suffered a lot of ball loss and saw a header from Lawrence Shankland, good for 20 goals in the Scottish competition this season on behalf of Hearts, end up on the roof of the goal.

After fifteen minutes of play, the Dutch team again got away well, when Frimpong lost the game to his direct opponent and Mark Fleken and the crossbar had to save the day. The Bayer Leverkusen full-back barely featured in the game and was eventually substituted after more than an hour.

Reijnders had already given the Dutch team a 1-0 lead. The AC Milan midfielder was given time and space to take action just before half time and shot beautifully into the top left corner. It was the former AZ player's first goal in his seventh international match.

After the break, the entertainment value increased and more chances and goals were scored. Fleken had to act on bets from John McGinn and Billy Gilmour, while on the other side Memphis was close to doubling the score.

The Dutch national team could blame itself for giving Scotland opportunities to score an equalizer. For example, Fleken got Reijnders into trouble in an attempt to build up. A little later, Mats Wieffer made a hopeless mistake. The Feyenoord player's present was not unpacked by Shankland, who shot onto the crossbar.

Koeman then brought in Joey Veerman and Denzel Dumfries and saw Wijnaldum finish the game. On a pass from Cody Gakpo, the midfielder headed home: 2-0. Gakpo himself was also often looking for a goal, but failed several times in the completion.

That was not the end of the matter for the Dutch team, as substitutes Wout Weghorst and Donyell Malen also contributed. The striker from Borne headed in a corner from Joey Veerman, while Malen provided the final score on a pass from the excellent Reijnders: 4-0. A large score was still achieved.

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