Spain – Netherlands: Spanish Strength Stretched To Its Limits (3-3, 5-4 After Penalties)

Spain suffered in the first leg and saw that their struggles were no coincidence in front of their home fans. Even though the balance of play tilted their way in this fixture, there was nothing to split the sides after 210 minutes, relying on the precarity of a penalty shootout to find a victor.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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Spain blended brilliant management of ball possession with blistering speed to take over Europe, going 22 games without any losses in over a year. Without a doubt, one of the trickiest tests in this streak was the first leg of this quarter-final tie: a last gasp Mikel Merino goal bailed out the team in Feyenoord. La Roja, who won the last edition of the Nations League, will be keen to back up their resurgence after their success last summer in the EUROs. But a victory cannot be taken for granted.

The Netherlands are the side to have tamed La Roja’s fire. It is an excellent exploit for a manager whose work has courted criticism in the last two years. Ronald Koeman commanded his country to the final four of the EUROs and could return to that stage in another tournament. His methods might not have lived up to the idealistic tropes that surround the nation’s football, but they have brought the Dutch to the brink of one of their biggest results in recent years. Would they pull out another surprise?

Koeman changed only one member of his last lineup. Jorrel Hato had a red card, so Ian Maatsen filled in for him as the left back. Lutsharel Geertruida got the nod on the other side, and Jan Paul van Hecke would join Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the rearguard. Tijjani Reijnders remained a more offensive piece in a pivot with Frenkie de Jong, while Patrick Kluivert continued as an attacking midfielder. Jeremie Frimpong and Cody Gakpo were the wingers, and Memphis Depay stayed as the striker.

Luis de la Fuente fielded seven starters from midweek. Pau Cubarsí had come off before the break due to an ankle ligament injury. Dean Huijsen, a Dutch player at youth level, took his place in central defense and stayed next to Robin Le Normand. Beside him was Óscar Mingueza, who replaced Pedro Porro as a right back. Dani Olmo operated as a number ten instead of Pedri, playing ahead of Martín Zubimendi and Fabián Ruiz. Álvaro Morata made way for Mikel Oyarzabal as the central forward.

Spain start swiftly

The first leg was a quiet night for La Roja’s offense. But almost immediately, they indicated more signs of life in this clash. The arrangement was similar: Olmo was the most advanced of the three midfielders, Yamal was more often the deeper recipient under pressure, and Williams was on the lookout for space to punch in a higher position. The ploy pulled apart the Dutch within five minutes.

Spain switched sides, and Cucurella climbed up the left wing to try and support Williams. The winger attacked the coverage of Frimpong and Lutsharel Geertruida, guiding the ball between the legs of the right back to break into the box. Van Hecke knocked the ball out of the danger zone, but it fell for Fabián. He found Olmo, whose first-time heel flick reached Oyarzabal, and the central forward fell under contact from van Hecke. Oyarzabal stepped up and slotted away the subsequent penalty.

4th minute: buildup sequence from Spain. Robin Le Normand encounters pressure from Kluivert and Mingueza stays deep to support the central defender. De Jong tracked Olmo, but Gakpo was reluctant to jump to Mingueza. By the time that he started to move, the compactness unraveled: Zubimendi was free behind the front two as Depay did not double back to the sitting midfielder and Spain switch sides successfully to access Williams in the final third and Cucurella comes forward as primary support.

The two wingers were lively in the first fifteen minutes and came close to doubling the lead. Yamal wriggled away from Dutch debutant Maatsen to thread a through ball for Oyarzabal. His teammate tucked away a strike but had been offside when he triggered his run, chalking off the effort. Minutes later, Huijsen picked the lock on the breakaway and Williams was attacking open ground in transition, but Bart Verbruggen was able to repel him from close range. It was looking ominous for the Oranje.

Spain stem the flow

The domination of the Dutch was despite their higher share of ball possession. They had picked off the press from the Spaniards with targets behind their aggressive midfielders in Feyenoord, but the hosts could contain Koeman’s men in this outing with a lower line of engagement. On the part of the Dutch, it was still many of the same ideas from the first leg. Reijnders roved ahead of Frenkie de Jong, Geertruida rotated into a narrower slot, and Kluivert connected with Gakpo on the left side.

32nd minute: offensive transition for Spain. Depay dropped towards the right side of the field, trying to thread the ball to Geertruida, but Cucurella cut out the attempted through ball. Once the Dutch lose the ball, Spain can streak forward in transition. As soon as Cucurella made the interception, Williams was sprinting upfield and offered Olmo an option on the outside. Oyarzabal stretched the pitch with a diagonal run to the left as Williams wandered inside, but van Heckle tackled him.

The Dutch did not produce much from these phases. Spain snapped shut the central corridors for Depay to drive any progression, while the link between Reijnders and Frimpong was much less fruitful than in the first leg. They required a little luck to level the score following the restart.

As the attack funneled down the right, Frimpong fired a delivery to the far post, where Le Normand and Depay were wrestling each other. The forward tumbled, and the referee pointed towards the spot. Depay delivered the goods, converting from twelve yards. The visitors were now vying for the lead but befell a fatal breakaway as the Spanish success on the break with Oyarzabal reaped its full reward.

Mingueza stole the ball away from Maatsen, and Yamal carried the forward thrust on the breakaway. He drove to the halfway line, finding Williams on the left edge of the attack. Oyarzabal ran across the winger, dragging van Dijk along his path, and Williams was able to accelerate away from van Hecke before threading a reverse pass to his teammate. Oyarzabal tried a chip over Verbruggen, who blocked the attempt, but the forward leaned in for the rebound and steered a header into the empty net.

Substitutes sustain entertainment

For the final quarter of an hour, Koeman completely changed the offense. Xavi Simons swapped in for Kluivert as a central attacking midfielder, Gakpo gave way to Noa Lang as their left winger, and Frimpong filled in as the right back so that Donyell Malen made inroads on the flank ahead of him. Within a few minutes of their introduction, they pegged back the hosts. Simons switched the ball to Lang, who fed the underlapping Maatsen. Olmo cut out his cutback, but Lang picked up a loose pass. Simons stood on the edge of the penalty area and set away Maatsen to strike into the back of the net.

De la Fuente threw on Pedri and Merino to try and manage the middle of the park as the tie ticked into extra time. Another moment of magic separated the sides in the 103rd minute. Huijsen hurled the ball on the diagonal to Yamal. The teenager took the ball down into his path seamlessly, stepped back inside Maatsen, and whipped an effort past Verbruggen to give the hosts the lead for the third time.

12 - No player has been involved in more goals for @SEFutbol than Lamine Yamal 🇪🇸 under Luis de la Fuente (four goals and eight assists). Decisive. pic.twitter.com/0zrpDrYftJ

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 23, 2025

But the Netherlands nailed their response. Kenneth Taylor took the place of de Jong and broke through midfield as a third man runner to assist Simons in the second half of injury time. Unai Simón swiped at the legs of the attacking midfielder, who dusted himself down to equalize from the spot.

It would come down to nerves from twelve yards. Lang was the first to blink before Yamal saw his strike go into the hands of Verbruggen. However, Merino, Ferran Torres, Aleix García, and Álex Baena, who had all come off the bench, stuck away their shots, and when Malen missed the mark, Yamal’s club teammate took responsibility for the victory as Pedri pushed La Roja over the line.

Takeaways

Spain are the team to beat and will expect other rivals across Europe to try and bring the best version of themselves to take their crown. For now, they have added another win to their streak of unbeaten fixtures and will face France in the final four of the Nations League in June. But while La Roja remain an exciting outfit, they are not impenetrable, and the Dutch could not have bowed out with a better display of resilience throughout the two legs. There is still life for Koeman in the dugout.

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