France claimed a 3-2 friendly win over the Netherlands on a night of emotion in Amsterdam on Friday, the day after Netherlands legend Johan Cruyff died at the age of 68.
The match at the Amsterdam Arena was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of the 31 people killed and 300 injured in the Brussels attacks on Tuesday.
The game was then paused in the 14th minute for 60 seconds of applause, as the players and supporters remembered Cruyff, the man who pioneered “Total Football” and inspired the Netherlands to the 1974 FIFA World Cup final.
Photo: AP
Before that though, Euro 2016 hosts France had taken control on their way to a win that sends a real message to their rivals for the continental title.
Antoine Griezmann sparked the match into life early on as he gave France the lead with a precise left-footed free-kick, and Olivier Giroud lashed home from close range to make it two in the 13th minute.
Home manager Danny Blind responded by making two changes at halftime, and his men dragged themselves back into the match through Luuk de Jong.
Substitute Ibrahim Afellay drove the Netherlands level in the 86th minute, but there was still time for Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Blaise Matuidi to snatch the victory for the visitors.
“There were some very good things. Our attacking trio created a lot of problems for the Dutch defense,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.
“In the second half, it was not the same players, so you cannot judge it the same. After a long break of five months, we did some good things and got the win,” he added.
The visitors forged ahead in the sixth minute, as Atletico Madrid forward Griezmann continued his red-hot run of form by curling into the top corner from the edge of the area, grabbing his sixth goal in seven games for club and country.
Things got even better for France as they doubled their lead seven minutes later.
Against a hapless Netherlands side, who failed to qualify for this summer’s Euros, Deschamps’ men were in total control, with Giroud pouncing inside the box to drill a volley low into the corner.
The goal comes at a perfect time for France and Giroud, with the striker having lost his place in Arsenal’s starting lineup, and at a time when Karim Benzema’s international future remains in the balance after the Mathieu Valbuena sex-tape scandal.
Blind’s Netherlands outfit finished fourth in their Euro qualifying group behind Iceland, Czech Republic and Turkey, and they were all at sea at the back as Griezmann headed over when well-placed.
Wingers Afellay and Memphis Depay came on at the break, and less than two minutes after the restart, De Jong halved the deficit by turning in Depay’s free-kick with his arm.
The Netherlands appeared to have snatched a draw when Depay rolled his corner along the ground to his fellow substitute Afellay and the Stoke City man smashed in his seventh international goal.
However, any result other than a win would have been harsh on France, and they completed a remarkable end to the game when Anthony Martial set up Matuidi to nutmeg goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen in the 88th minute.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty for the second time in a week as hosts Portugal slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Bulgaria.
Brazilian-born Marcelinho bundled the away team, who unlike their hosts have not qualified for the Euros, into a surprise lead in the 19th minute.
Bulgaria held on, with the help of goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov’s second-half save from Ronaldo, who also missed a spot-kick for Real Madrid on Sunday.
The Republic of Ireland put in the type of stubborn performance that typified their successful Euro qualifying campaign by edging past Switzerland 1-0 in Dublin.
Ireland, who took four points off world champions Germany in qualifying, took the lead in the second minute when Aston Villa center-back Ciaran Clark headed in from a corner.
Switzerland dominated possession, but could not break down Martin O’Neill’s hosts, who hung on for an impressive victory.
Slovakia, who are to take on England, Russia and Wales in Group B at the Euros, played out a goalless draw with visitors Latvia.
In other games, Bosnia won 3-0 away at Luxembourg, while Armenia held visitors Belarus to a 0-0 draw.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier