Bulgaria earned a surprising 2-0 victory over Holland on Saturday, in their World Cup qualifying game. Coach Danny Blind accepted full responsibility for his team’s loss. With the team sitting fourth in the group, the coach said he will have to consider his future as manager of the team.
There were few positives for Netherlands after their 2-0 defeat. The team looked uninspired and squandered the few goal chances they received. The loss sees them move further away from a Qualification place. Holland are now 6 points behind leaders France, while the victory helped Bulgaria climb to third place.
Another notable point to the gap was the debut Matthijs de Ligt. The 17-year-old Ajax player started the game as a central defender. However, he didn’t enjoy the best of games and Blind was apologetic for this risky move in such an important game.
Spas Delev was Bulgaria’s hero on the night, netting two goals. Bulgaria were already 2-0 up with only 20 minutes played. Netherlands’ first major chance came only in the 43rd minute when Bas Dost shot wide from close range. Holland continued to attack, but shots from Wesley Sneijder and Bas Dost made no impact on the scoresheet.
At the double! Spas Delev can hardly hide his delight pic.twitter.com/UxYDo6qH4S
— European Qualifiers (@EuroQualifiers) March 25, 2017
Holland are now in real danger of missing out on the 2018 World Cup. The team also missed out on Euro 2016, much to the disappointment of the Dutch fans. Blind sparred his players and took responsibility for the situation.
“We did a very poor performance, that is obvious,” Blind told NOS. “I do not know why we started so poorly. We hardly created any chances. I blame myself. In hindsight it was not good for De Ligt to start, but that’s hindsight. This was my responsibility. “
“Whether I will still lead the team? I need to think about it. I do not throw the towel in here. I’m incredibly disappointed, especially since I had a good feeling about this match. It makes sense that I put myself in front of the mirror.”
Netherlands captain Arjen Robben made his disappointment clear when speaking to the press after the game. Robben didn’t single out any of his colleagues, but called the entire team’s playing “deplorable”.
“What can you say? This is a nightmare,” Robben told NOS. “We came here with good intentions and before the game I was positive. But the first half was such a deplorable level.”
“There was a lot wrong,” Robben said. “We can point fingers but that does not make sense.That does not change the result. We lost here, and those are the hard facts.If we play a good game, we win here. But we did not play a good game, or even a bad game. This was a terrible day.”
