Dutchman Mark van Bommel, coach of the Belgian national team, praised his rival, Zinedine Zidane, coach of France, before the match between them on Monday, in the fourth round of Group A in the first level of the European Nations League.
Van Bommel said, in a press conference before the confrontation between the two teams, when he spoke about the talents of the French team and citing the performance of Kylian Mbappe against Turkey and Michael Oliseh against Belgium: “Thanks to their individual abilities, they can decide the outcome of the match.”
However, the Dutch coach believes that Zidane will need to maintain this level of performance in the long term with his entire squad.
Van Bommel said: “Zidane must maintain consistent performance with all the players he has available.”
He added, expressing his regret for his defeat against France in the first match: “We should have gotten a point in Brussels.”
The Irish national team missed the opportunity to advance to second place in Group C in the second level of the European Nations League.
The Irish national team tied 1-1 with its guest, the Israeli national team, on Sunday, in the fourth round of the group, which also includes the Austrian and Kosovo national teams.
Troy Parrott took the initiative to score for the Irish national team from a penalty kick in the 39th minute, but Dur Peretz equalized for the Israeli national team in the 47th minute, giving each team one point.
Irish players repeatedly wore black armbands and refused to shake hands with Israeli players, while Israeli players also wore black armbands to mourn the memory of the victims of the attack on October 7, 2023.
With this result, the Irish national team has 5 points and is in third place in the group standings, on goal difference behind the Kosovo national team, which is in second place, and equal with them on the same score, while the Israel national team remains at the bottom of the standings with two points.
It is noteworthy that the Austrian national team is at the top of the standings with 8 points, two rounds before the end of the group stage in the continental competition.
The German national team returned with a goalless draw with the taste of defeat against its Greek host in the fourth round of the second group of the first level of the European Nations League on Sunday, and the Dutch were the biggest beneficiaries of taking the lead by renewing their victory over Serbia 2-1.
The first two teams in the group after the end of the group stage in mid-November will qualify for the quarter-finals scheduled for March.
In the first match at the “Stadio Toumbas” stadium in Thessaloniki, the German team, which was seeking to open a new page with coach Jurgen Klopp, returned to failure after Yateem’s victory over Serbia 2-1 in the last round, as negativity overshadowed the result and performance.
Out of the four matches played in this window, the four-time world champions scored five points from a win, two draws and a defeat, ranking third in the group behind the Netherlands, which leads with eight points on goal difference from runner-up Greece, while Serbia finished fourth and last without a score.
After Klopp initially announced an expanded list that included 44 players divided into two groups, it seemed that the second group demonstrated greater capabilities by beating Serbia 2-0 in the third round after two matches in which the Germans failed to win, including a 0-1 loss to Greece itself in Munich and a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
The former Liverpool coach included David Raum, Lennart Karl and Jonathan Burkhardt in the starting lineup, while Maximilian Mittelstadt and Nick Voltmadhe were absent from the start, while Serge Gnabry was completely excluded from the match list.
Florian Wirtz was also included alongside Burkhardt on the front line, in an attacking duo that the German team relied on to create danger after Wirtz scored against Serbia.
For his part, Serbian coach Ivan Jovanovic of Greece made four changes to the squad that blew a two-goal lead against the Netherlands (2-2), at a time when Christos Tzoulis, the English Arsenal player, missed the match after he was forced to leave the field after only 18 minutes in the last match, following an injury that appeared to be at the level of the hamstring.
The hosts entered the match strongly, as Liverpool left-back Kostantinos Tsimikas raced down the left side before sending a perfect cross that found national team captain Giorgos Masouras waiting for it, as he rose high and converted a powerful header, but goalkeeper Jonas Orbig was on time to clear it (4).
A goal for the German team was canceled by Burkadt, who passed the goalkeeper and put his ball into the goal, but the referee returned to the video assistant referee (VAR) to cancel the goal due to a violation at the beginning of the attack (34).
Wirtz sought to leave his mark on the match after preparing the ball for Derry Sherhant, who fired a powerful shot with his right from outside the area that passed along the left post (43).
The visitors continued their efforts to open the scoring, as Shirhant passed a dangerous cross that passed the right post (65).
The Greek team responded with a header through captain Masouras after a dangerous cross, but it went over the goal (76).
In the second match at Philips Stadium in Eindhoven, the Dutch national team achieved its second victory under the leadership of its new Spanish coach, Xavi Hernandez, by defeating its guest, the Serbian national team, 2-1, to take the lead.
Ton Koopmeiners (32) and Joshua Zirkzee (72) scored for the Orange team, after Mihailo Cvetkovic equalized for the Serbs before the end of the first half (35).
The Dutch team previously defeated Serbia with the same score in the second round, while it tied with Germany 2-2 at the opening, then with Greece in the last round with the same score.
