The Netherlands and Germany are both looking to record their first victory in the UEFA Nations League when they clash at Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam on Saturday. The last meeting between these two teams was a friendly match back in 2012, which ended goalless. That match came just a few months after their meeting at Euro 2012, which Germany won 2-1 as the Netherlands finished last in the group after three consecutive defeats. The Dutch have not won a match against Germany since 2002, when they recorded a 3-1 victory in a friendly match. Germany have won just two of the following four matches, the other four were draws.
The Netherlands are hoping to get back to their former glory in the world of football after having missed out of the 2018 World Cup final tournament, but the start that they had in the UEFA Nations League wasn't exactly encouraging. The Dutch lost their first match of the tournament 2-1 in France in September, and only managed to sent two shots on target during that game. A few days before that they did record a 2-1 friendly victory over Peru, but the level of the opponents that they have to face in the Nations League is far higher. The Dutch can't afford to lose against Germany on Saturday, otherwise their chances to win Group 1 will become extremely slim.
Germany suffered a big disappointment at this summer World Cup as they failed to get past the group stage, and that moment still seems to haunt their players and staff. Their UEFA Nations League campaign started with a goalless draw at home against France, a decent result considering that the French are the reigning World Champions. A few days later Germany took on Peru in a friendly match and went on to record the same result as the Netherlands, a 2-1 victory. Head coach Joachim Low had several injury headaches before this match, as Kai Havertz, Marco Reus, Leon Goretzka, Kevin Trapp and Antonio Rudiger were all taken out of the squad due to medical problems.
Probable line-ups:
Netherlands: Cillessen - Tete, Ligt, Van Dijk, Blind - Propper, Wijnaldum, De Jong - Promes, Depay, Babel
Germany: Neuer - Kimmich, Boateng, Hummels, Hector - Kroos, Rudy - Muller, Draxler, Sane - Werner
My prediction: 1-1 draw, Germany don't seem very strong at the moment and the Dutch could take advantage and avoid defeat.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Netherlands win - 3.50
Draw - 3.75
Germany win - 2.10
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