Netherlands vs. Turkey: Winners and Losers from Euro 2016 Qualifier
A stoppage-time Wesley Sneijder shot, which was deflected off Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, rescued the Netherlands from a desperate home loss to Turkey in Euro 2015 Group A qualifying on Saturday.
Burak Yilmaz gave the disciplined and positive visitors a 37th-minute lead. Fatih Terim's team looked like they were going to hold it too, until the late, lucky escape act from the Dutch.
Read on for the winners and losers from this entertaining, albeit not always aesthetically pleasing, European Championships qualifier, which ended 1-1.
Winners: Czech Republic and Iceland
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Before we get to the Netherlands and Turkey, it should be noted the biggest winners from the result of their encounter are their Group A rivals.
At the group's halfway point, Iceland are now five points clear of the third-placed Dutch after their 3-0 win over Kazakhstan (Turkey are two points behind Holland). Table-toppers Czech Republic could only draw 1-1 at home to Latvia, but they retain a healthy advantage too.
With third-place teams going into a playoff for the expanded Euro 2016 tournament, the 1-1 draw at the Amsterdam Arena was not a killer blow for either the Netherlands or Turkey (not to mention the best-ranked third-placer qualifies automatically).
Nonetheless, it has further boosted the group leaders' hopes of automatic qualification. That's no small thing for Iceland, who have never competed in a major tournament, or the Czech Republic, who are perennial recent European Championship qualifiers but missed out on last summer's World Cup.
Loser: Guus Hiddink
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Guus Hiddink's second spell as Netherlands national team manager had already proved a tumultuous one before Turkey's visit. After his side lost two of their first three qualification games, the Oranje boss promised he would resign if they lost to Latvia in November, according to The Guardian.
A comfortable 6-0 win kept the 68-year-old in the job. His employment status will be further scrutinised now, however, after a dispiriting, often ugly performance against another of his former teams.
The Dutch actually started brightly, as left-back Daley Blind's forward runs isolated Turkey right-back Gokhan Gonul. A threatening low cross and incisive combinations with Memphis Depay and Wesley Sneijder created a succession of chances it seemed the ascendant Dutch would surely follow up on.
They did not.
Instead, they began to meander, wasting their early momentum, and the visitors promptly took advantage.
Turkey had already highlighted poor marking from the Dutch defence when Burak Yilmaz and Mehmet Topal threatened. Hiddink's men did not address it and were punished when the former was teed up by Volkan Sen following a Gokhan Tore cross.
The biggest indictment of Hiddink and his team was not that they went behind. It was the manner of their response.
Substitute Luciano Narsingh provided some semblance of craft from the right. The majority of their work, though, revolved around long balls launched forward for Huntelaar and another replacement, Bas Dost, to fruitlessly toil for.
The swiftness with which the Netherlands moved to this strategy was disconcerting. The results so far under Hiddink are obviously concerning, as the Dutch have two wins, one draw and four losses in his second stint as manager. But it is the lack of ideas that is informing them that will give fans most reason to worry.
Winner: Wesley Sneijder
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Just about any team would miss the creativity of Arjen Robben and the lethal finishing of Robin van Persie. Therefore, some sympathy can be afforded Hiddink and the Dutch attack.
Nevertheless, their lineup was still blessed with renowned, proven talent capable—with a little more imagination—of unlocking Turkey. The failure of Depay, Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay to do so does not bode well for future games without their stars.
Sneijder was not too much better than his younger team-mates. He was as culpable as any, as the Netherlands slowed down in that late first-half period. As skipper, it could be argued he should have taken more responsibility in ensuring they did not turn to the almost aimless long-ball game that emerged after the interval.
Yet, if the 30-year-old is not the wholly influential presence he once was, he still found a way to make a difference.
Huntelaar will be awarded the equaliser after it ricochetted off his body. But it was the playmaker seizing the opportunity to try his luck from distance (with a hat tip to Jetro Willems, who teed him up) that ensured Holland left with a point.
Individually, Sneijder also earned some bragging rights back in the day job after he denied several of his Galatasaray team-mates an important win.
Loser: Turkey's Defence
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The classy Yilmaz and the adventurous Tore deserve plaudits for a positive Turkish attacking display, as do the midfielders and full-backs who ably supported them.
Besides the goalscorer, those most deserving of credit for what would have been a huge three points for the Eastern Europeans were their disciplined and aggressive starting back five.
For 92 minutes they stifled the men in orange and barely put a foot wrong. They were desperately unlucky with the eventual leveller too.
Goalkeeper Volkan Babacan made several smart saves to stop the Dutch when they did break through. In front of him, centre-back pair Serdar Aziz and Hakan Balta relished the duels with Huntelaar and later Dost. At set plays, they soon took control, and when Stefan de Vrij found a gap from an early Sneijder free-kick, they were aided by the alert Caner Erkin.
Turkey's next two qualifiers are against Group A's bottom two, Kazakhstan and Latvia.
They need two wins to keep their qualification hopes alive. If Terim's men show the same spirit and their defence plays with similar focus, they are capable of doing so comfortably. In the process they might find the solidity needed to stop the group's front-runners in the deciding autumn fixtures.
For now, they have to lick their wounds after a good job went unrewarded.
