Dutch masters leave Spain reeling

Netherlands 5 Spain 1

Back when the draw for the finals of Euro 2012 was still pending and there was still the prospect of a softer ride, Keith Andrews was asked about the prospect of he and Glenn Whelan taking on Xavi Hernandez and Andre Iniesta.

Standard practice is these situations is for the player to suggest “you want to test yourself against the best,” but the Dubliner laughed nervously at the thought and acknowledged that it mightn’t go too well. It didn’t.

Andrews must have been cheered up ever so slightly by the games that followed in Poland and Ukraine for the Barcelona pair subjected more celebrated opponents than him to the torture of being twisted, turned and left to chase their tails for 90 minutes.

Two years on, the pair remain central to plans for another title defence and yet they became peripheral to events as Spain were crushed at the Arena Fonte Nova yesterday. A rethink may finally be required.

When these two last met four years ago, Xavi and Iniesta passed the ball more in the Dutch half between them than pretty much all of their opponents combined managed to in theirs. “Pum, pum, pum, pum,” was how Xavi described the sound of the ball going back and forth.

Neither has had the greatest of season’s at club level and if their passing powers are really waning then that certainly wasn’t Spain’s biggest problem here. Anyway, it can take a lot more than dominance of a game’s central area to win – something the World champions found here to their cost in a dramatic and utterly compelling second half.

Central defence

The Dutch had made life easy for Spain's "puppet masters" early on with a switch to a three-man central defence that left them consistently shorthanded where most of the action was, 10 metres further up the field. But the Spanish duo made the most of the opportunity, this time giving Nigel de Jong and Jonathan Guzman the run around with their trademark short passing game.

While Spain dominated it had much to do with the pair's ability to control and shift the balance of things in the centre of the pitch. Had all of the clear-cut chances they set up – Xavi's two for Diego Costa, the second of which yielded another hugely questionable penalty, and Iniesta's for David Silva – then the game might have been out of sight before the Dutch knew what had hit them.

What Louis van Gaal surrendered in the centre, though, allowed his side to dominate the flanks and having seen his side ride their luck over the bulk of the opening half, the tactics paid their first spectacular reward on the strike of half-time.

One angled ball out of defence found Daley Blind far out on the left from where he hit a long angled cross over the Spanish defence which Robin Van Persie quite brilliantly headed over Iker Casillas from the edge of the area.

It was the start of what was to become a very bad night for the goalkeeper. He started well, making a decent early stop from Wesley Sneijder but didn’t distinguish himself at all in the second half and was to blame for the fourth Dutch goal after 72 minutes.

The sides, then, went in level for the break for Xabi Alonso had scored their penalty and it was interesting to see the Dutch stick to their formation in the second half with Van Gaal settling for the fact that more often than not the extra body meant there was cover on hand when things got awkward around the area.

The Spaniards, meanwhile, continued to lack width of their own with Silva and Iniesta repeatedly happy to drift inside and that became more and more of a problem, particularly as the energy of this Dutch side began to take its toll.

Retreating slightly

Early on the sight of Daryl Janmaat hustling Iniesta out on Holland’s right had looked almost pointless with the 30 year-old retreating slightly then producing a 60-metre crossfield ball for Cesar Azpilicueta on the other flank.

Later on, though, it was a different story with Spain losing possession all over the pitch under pressure and not doing nearly enough to win it back.

The sight of Iniesta and Xavi almost strolling towards the halfway line as Arjen Robben tore upfield on the way to scoring the first of his two goals was not a good sign for Spain but it provided a sense for what was to come. For the third goal Azpilicueta carelessly allowed Stefan De Vrij to get in around him at the far post to bundle home a free from the left.

From there on it was simply further downhill with Holland’s old boy network, Van Persie and Robben comfortably eclipsing Spain’s as they got a goal more apiece and left the champions with a scrap on their hands if they are to even make it out of their group, nevermind avoid the hosts in the second round.

They did it last time, of course, when they bounced back from an opening defeat by Switzerland to top the group but the defeat wasn’t like this one. And just about everyone of them was four years younger then.