Friday 27th May 2016 Kickoff 1945hrs
Republic of Ireland v Netherlands
Football – Friendly – International
With the European Championships just over a fortnight away, anticipating is rising all across the continent amongst the 24 teams who will be competing in France. One of those, the Republic of Ireland, are in friendly action on Friday evening as preparations really begin to step up a gear. Their opponents, the Netherlands, will not be participating after an extremely disappointing qualifying campaign, with the Dutch using their next four friendly games as a build-up to their World Cup qualification campaign which begins at the start of September.
The Irish have definitely benefited from the change in qualification for this year’s Championships following their third place finish in qualifying. Ordinarily that would have been elimination but they ended up in a play-off and faced Bosnia Herzegovina. Despite being underdogs heading into the two-legged tie, Martin O’Neill’s men earned a credible 1-1 draw in the away tie before finishing matters off with a comprehensive 2-0 success in Dublin. Qualification to Euro 2016 means it is now successive European Championships that the Republic have reached, and they will be looking to improve on their last showing in the Ukraine and Poland when they failed to gain a point and managed just one goal in their three group games. With a group containing Italy, Belgium and Sweden, it looks just as tough this time around and will be a major achievement if Ireland can make it through to the knockout stages. Of course, with four of the best third-place teams making it into the last-16, there is a chance that Ireland could well be one of them and benefit once again from the change in format.
After finishing third in the 2014 World Cup, confidence would have been high in the Dutch squad that they were capable of making a further impression on the international scene in upcoming tournaments, both in Europe and the World stage. After all, the squad included plenty of youth, namely Memphis Depay, Daley Blind and Georginio Wijnaldum. All three have earned big money moves to the Premier League since then and looked to form the backbone of a very exciting Netherlands squad. That was until qualification started for Euro 2016 and it all started to go horribly wrong. With Louis Van Gaal taking over at Manchester United after the World Cup, Guus Hidding was back for another spell in charge of his national team but it was a disaster from the outset. Despite being so strong defensively under Van Gaal, Hiddink decided to opt for a more attacking style and it backfired. With only four wins from their 10 group games, the Dutch filled fourth spot behind Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey. Often associated with underachievement, this was still a surprise and you can’t help but think that the finals in France will be missing something without the colour and flair of the Dutch.
Martin O’Neill has opted to select a large selection of players ahead of naming his final 23-man squad for next month’s finals. It’s not a massive surprise considering the Irish have elected to use a big pool of players throughout qualifying so the manager is given himself every opportunity before the deadline of the 31st of May . One man who is all but guaranteed to be on the plane is Robbie Keane who is very much a veteran of his national team these days. Keane – now plying his trade in Major Lead Soccer with LA Galaxy – never featured much during the qualifying campaign but his experience will still be invaluable having participated in Euro 2012 and the 2002 World Cup. Not many of the squad have played in a major finals so O’Neill will been keen to have Keane’s presence in the camp. Whether or not he is selected to take part in any of the games is another matter, but he could well play some part on Friday.
For all the problems the Dutch had in qualifying, there remains a fair bit of optimism with a view to the immediate and long-term future. This summer’s Championships will be the first finals of a major tournament they will have been absent from since the 2002 World Cup (courtesy of Republic of Ireland who eliminated them from qualifying) but the squad itself appears to have plenty of quality throughout it. Providing Blind is able to make them a coherent team then it would be a surprise if they miss too many more major championships over the next decade. Their World Cup qualifying section could have been kinder, right enough, having been drawn in the same group as France, so they can ill-afford to start the campaign slowly – meaning there is even more importance on this friendly game and the proceeding three before facing Sweden.
Republic of Ireland v Netherlands Betting Tips
Despite both teams have completely different motivations coming into this game, it has the potential to be an entertaining fixture for friendly international standards. As the Dutch proved in their last game when defeating England 2-1 at Wembley, even though they are not preparing for the Euro’s themselves, they have plenty to play for and their big-name players will also feel they have a point to prove after their disappointing qualifying campaign. O’Neill is likely to give some of his fringe players a go as he looks to firm his squad up ahead of that Tuesday deadline, and that could well be crucial in terms of the outcome of this match. Although Ireland have pulled one or two rabbits out the hat to reach France, it’s unlikely they will have the same intensity going into this one. The visitors, however, are returning to something like what they are capable of and have enjoyed their last two visits to the British Isles, beating Wales towards the end of last year, too. I strongly fancy them to make this trip another successful on and they should be backed to get the win in Dublin.
Netherlands 13/10 @ Paddy Power
