In his first participation as a starter, Spaniard Mix Meerdinj gifted Xavi Hernandez his first victory in his second match as coach of the Dutch national team, by scoring a double in the victory over Serbia 2-1, on Sunday, in Belgrade in the second round of the European Nations League Group B competitions.
Xavi began his mission with “The Windmills” on Thursday, with a last-minute draw with Germany 1-1 in Amsterdam, and then on Sunday he achieved his first victory with the national team, which pledged to restore the attacking philosophy for which it was previously famous.
Meerdink scored his first major appearance with the Netherlands national team, after the AZ Alkmaar striker participated for the first time in the “Windows” shirt as a substitute in the 35th minute of the Germany match following Brian Brobbey’s injury.
His inclusion comes as part of two changes that Xavi made to the starting lineup that played the Amsterdam match, and the second was in the midfield, where Joey Firman replaced Quentin Temper, who started the match on the bench.
On the other hand, Veljko Paunovic made seven changes to the Serbia squad that lost in the last moments to Greece (1-2) in the first round, while the quartet of goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, central defender Strahinja Pavlovic, midfield duo Andrija Jevkovic and Al-Hilal player Sergej Milinkovic-Savic maintained their places in the starting lineup.
With Sunday’s victory, the Netherlands continues its superiority over its rival, whose last victory over the “Windmills” dates back to May 1975, when Yugoslavia won 3-0 in a friendly match held in Belgrade, before then losing the next six confrontations, the last of which was before the separation between Serbia and Montenegro in the 2006 World Cup finals.
The two sides did not offer much in the first half-hour of the match, and the most notable event was the Netherlands losing the efforts of Cody Khakpo, the winner of the fatal draw against Germany, to injury, leaving his place to Robin van Bommel (17), followed by a Dutch chance for Meerdink after the ball reached him from Tijani Reynders, the Al-Qadisiyah player, but the Serbian goalkeeper saved the situation in two attempts (18).
Then Al Hilal player Crescencio Summerville won a penalty kick for the Netherlands after a mistake by Alexa Terzic. Merdinc successfully converted it after he shot it hard past Milinkovic-Savic (30), so the 23-year-old opened his scoring tally with “The Windmills” in his second match and his first as a starter.
Xavi's team continued its advantage after the goal and threatened the Serbian goal on more than one occasion, but the result remained the same until the end of the first half.
Immediately at the start of the second half, and after two attempts, goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen excelled in blocking them, substitute Luka Jovic started the confrontation from scratch when he equalized from the third attempt on the Dutch goal in the same attack after the ball reached him from Sasha Lukic (46).
However, after several attempts, the Dutch regained the lead through Meerdink again with a shot from a difficult angle after a pass from substitute Jos Thiel (69).
The Dutch had a golden opportunity to deliver the final blow to their host through a wonderful start by Summerville, who began his incursion from his team's area before passing to Till, who, instead of shooting into the goal, passed the ball to Van Bommel, who shot it from a tight angle at Milinkovic-Savic (90).
But in the end, the Netherlands returned victorious from Belgrade and gifted Xavi his first victory as their coach.
At Parken Stadium in the capital, Copenhagen, the Danish national team achieved its first victory in the European Nations League, defeating its guest, Wales, 2-0, in the second round, on Sunday.
After a negative first half, the Danish national team took the lead with an own goal scored by Welshman Ben Davies by mistake against his team in the 53rd minute, and Gustav Isaksen added the second goal for the hosts in the 66th minute.
With this result, the Danish national team achieved the first 3 points in its journey in the fourth group of the first level, compensating for its dramatic loss to Norway with a score of 2-3 in the first round.
As for the Wales national team, it remained without a score at the bottom of the standings after losing 1-0 to the defending champion, Portugal, in the first round.
In the third round, the Danish national team is preparing for a strong confrontation at home against Portugal, while the Wales national team will host its Norwegian counterpart, and both matches will be held on Thursday.
In Vienna, the Austrian national team defeated its guest, Kosovo, 3-1, on Sunday, to lead its group.
The hosts took the lead with a goal scored by David Avengrober after 23 minutes.
The Austrian national team strengthened its advantage with a second goal, scored by Chukwubuike Adamu in the second minute of stoppage time.
In the second half, Carne Chukwuemeka concluded the hat-trick with a goal in the 61st minute.
The visitors reduced the gap with a single goal scored by Idon Zegrova in the 83rd minute from a penalty kick.
With this victory, the Austrian national team, led by its coach Ralf Rangnick, takes the lead in Group C in the second level of the Nations League with 6 points, achieving the full mark, followed by Kosovo with three points in second place.
Later on Sunday, the Irish and Israeli teams will meet in Hungary in the same group competitions.
In the third round, Austria will host Ireland on Thursday, and Kosovo will play with Israel on the same day.
The competitions of this group began with Austria defeating Israel with a score of 3-1, while Kosovo beat Ireland with a score of 1-0.
