Manager insists he knows how to cope with pressure before Euro 2020 qualifier against the Netherlands but there is a sense that the country has fallen out of love with its national teamBefore the game against Serbia, Germany’s followers displayed a huge choreography, forming the letters “Danke” with three numbers underneath them: 5, 13 and 17.It was the fans’ way of saying thank you to Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller and Jérôme Boateng, the three world champions who had been unceremoniously dumped by Joachim Löw at the beginning of the month and told they would not be considered for selection again in the near future. Related: Thomas Müller 'angry' after Joachim Löw says he has no Germany future Related: Leroy Sané...
Virgil van Dijk is leader of the flying Dutchmen, Kosovo are on the verge of something special and a fed up Britt abroadWhen Gareth Southgate needed to turn the tide against Croatia at the World Cup, his options were limited by a lack of forward players on England’s bench. It was difficult for Southgate to alter the flow of the game and it was unsurprising to see his side run out of steam. Yet England have continued to progress since then and offered an indication of their greater strength in depth when they reached the Nations League finals at Croatia’s expense. What a difference it made for Southgate to introduce Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard and Jadon Sancho after Andrej Kramaric...
Montenegro and Serbia’s historic meeting, unhappy memories for England and the Republic of Ireland, and Georgi Petkov’s international return – at 42Twelve years after Montenegro achieved independence and 11 years after they were formally recognised by Fifa, they meet Serbia for the first time. The match is, according to goalkeeper Danijel Petkovic, the biggest in the nation’s history. After two games the teams are level on points at the top of Group C4, adding competitive edge to an already spicy encounter. Serbia are far from full strength: Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojevic is one of several players to have dropped out of the squad since the World Cup after falling out with the manager, Mladen Krstajic, while the captain, Nemanja Matic,...
When Johan Cruyff sold Jan Olsson the mother of all dummies with the subtlest of swerves, the Dutch captain’s signature move became the enduring symbol of Total FootballIt’s the defining image of the 1974 World Cup; the defining image of the great Dutch team of the 70s; the defining image of one of the most talented, enchanting and magical players to ever breeze around a football field.It’s the 23rd minute of the Group 3 game between Holland and Sweden at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, and Wim van Hanegem has the ball at his feet on the right wing. He’s about to be crowded out by Bjorn Andersson and Ralf Edstrom, so clips a pass back along the flank to Wim...
When Holland faced Germany it was always ‘problematic’, never more so than at Italia 90 when two rivals clashedA sort of photographic antithesis of Bobby Moore’s post shirt-swap embrace with Pelé in 1970, it is one of the iconic World Cup images. Four years after the photograph was taken, it was further seared on the collective football consciousness when the author and journalist Simon Kuper used it to illustrate the cover of his award-winning bestseller Football Against The Enemy. Kuper would later regret doing so and apologised to one of the players featured in the photograph on the grounds that it was probably unfair to highlight such an unseemly act when it had been perpetrated by somebody for whom such...