On 10th October at Amsterdam Arena, Netherlands will play host to Kazakhstan for the second round of qualifying for the 2016 European Championship in Group A. Kickoff has been set at 20:45.
The Dutch have not been doing so well lately. They lost both their friendly against Italy with 2-0 and their first round fixture against the Czech Republic 2-1.
Both matches may have been away, but a greater performance was expected from the team that finished third in the World Cup in Brazil. The match against Kazakhstan will give them the chance to pull things back together and get on the right track as they are the group’s favorites to qualify and they cannot do that if they do not win over supposedly lesser teams.
They need to clear 18 points from Kazakhstan, Latvia and Iceland and battle it out with the Czechs and the Turks.
It is quite characteristic of what Guus Hiddink thinks of this match the fact that, according to the news, he will use five substitute players in the initial line-up in an attempt to safeguard key players from possible injuries.
Kazakhstan have won their preparatory friendlies and drew a 0-0 with Latvia on the first round fixture. But they have yet to play the group’s major contenders like Holland, the Czech Republic and Turkey. No one expects them to do anything else than put up a good fight, may be score once, but eventually lose the matches against all three of these teams.
Of course, the 11-0 victory of the Netherlands against their opponents of 22nd October 2012 is not expected to be repeated, but there has been only one more game between the two sides in Holland and the Dutch won it 2-0.
The numbers say that this one will be an easy victory for the Netherlands with at least two goals difference. It will be a major surprise if Kazakhstan scores at all.