Germany's opponents Netherlands: Oranje celebrates Xavi Ball in the Cruyff Stadium

For Dutch football, which has recently been more battered than praised, 90 spectacular minutes in the 7-0 victory in the Nations League against Greece were enough to elicit superlatives from the actually pathologically skeptical media: “Monsterzege!”, “Oranje Show!” The Spanish bond coach Xavi Hernández, however, was demonstratively reserved: “Now it's against 'the Germany',” he said in English. “It’s going to be tough in Berlin!” On Monday evening (8:45 p.m., ARD) in the Olympic Stadium it will be shown how big the pseudo-giant Oranje really is at the moment. And there is still a lot conceivable from XS to XL.

1:1 against Germany, 2:2 in Greece and two 2:1 successes against the bottom of the group, Serbia - with these results in the first four games as the new bond coach, the Spanish football legend Xavi had not yet caused any euphoria in the Netherlands, let alone monstrous metaphors. But the 7-0 win against the Greeks sent the nation into acute ecstasy and served as the coach's first reference on his longed-for path to lead this football country, which has often stumbled recently, into a better future. “It was amazing,” the 46-year-old reveled, sounding like the Star Wars hero Mandalorian: “That’s the way!”

The Dutch, brimming with joy, led 3-0 after 18 minutes, 5-0 at half-time and 7-0 after 61 minutes against a Greek team against whom Germany had not scored a goal at all in two Nations League games (0-1 in Augsburg and 0-0 in Thessaloniki). Tijjani Reijnders from the Saudi club Al-Qadisiyah scored three goals, two goals from Jurrien Timber from Arsenal FC and one goal from Crysencio Summerville from the Saudi club Al-Hilal. Donyell Malen from AS Roma contributed one goal and two assists, three assists from Denzel Dumfries from Real Madrid and one assist from Joey Veerman from Borussia Dortmund. Frenkie de Jong, who took over the captaincy from the injured Virgil van Dijk, said after the game: “Today it clicked.”

Coach Xavi also speaks critically about Dortmund's Joey Veerman

“We controlled the game from the start, pressed high and had a lot of possession,” praised Xavi. “We attacked the spaces and created a lot of chances, that was very good - but if I look at the game again, I will find many points that we still need to improve on.” Examples? But sure: “With his quality, Joey Veerman shouldn’t actually lose balls like he did towards the end of the game,” said Xavi. “He lost two or three balls in the second half – he can’t let up.”

It's logical that a coach would put out the fire with cold water after a game that set everyone on fire. After all, the biggest tasks in the Nations League still lie ahead: the last group game in Berlin on Monday, the quarter-finals at the end of March and the possible Final Four in June. “This was just the beginning of our process, now we need continuity,” said Xavi. “I was always confident and believe in my philosophy, but we have to maintain this level now, also this mentality - then we will have the potential to do things like we did in this game.”

The Spaniard expects a much more difficult task against Germany. “Everything will be different on Monday, Germany wants to dominate and press hard – we have to take this pressure off.” It will be exciting to see whether this duel will be a fight between King Kong and Godzilla - or just a mouse circus.