Arjen Robben doubles up against Wales to get Holland’s rebuild off the ground
Wales 2 - 3 HollandHome team scorers
Joe Ledley 45 +2:06
Emyr Huws 70
Away team scorers
Bas Dost 32
Arjen Robben 54
Arjen Robben 81
Holland’s Arjen Robben slots the ball past Wales’s goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams to score. The goal was eventually enough to see Holland past Wales despite two equalisers for Chris Coleman’s side.
After all the talk about how Wales would cope without Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, the problems ended up being at the other end of the pitch for Chris Coleman’s team on an evening when Arjen Robben scored twice as Holland took their first steps on the road to redemption.
Embarrassed by their failure to qualify for Euro 2016, Holland weathered the storm – literally as a swirling wind and driving rain swept through the Welsh capital – and in Robben had the best performer on the pitch. With his winning goal nine minutes from time, the Bayern Munich forward became only the ninth Dutch player to score 30 goals for his country and he could easily have walked away with the matchball under his arm.
Instead, Robben ended the match with a home fan trying to confront him after the final whistle, seemingly trying to take a photo rather than do anything untoward, and it was tempting to think that it was closest a Welshman had got to the 31-year-old all night. “He can open up any defence on that type of form,” Coleman said.
Yet for the Wales manager there were plenty of positives to take from this performance as he starts to plan for the finals in France next summer, not least the fact that his team carried such a threat going forward despite the absence of their most dangerous players. “Everyone says you only score with Bale and Rambo, so I was pleased tonight to get a couple of goals without them on the pitch,” Coleman said.
Tom Lawrence was among those to be singled out by the manager with the Leicester striker, who is currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers, impressing on his first start for his country. There was also a first international goal for Emyr Huws to cherish, George Williams made his first appearance for eight months after returning from rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament and the home fans were treated to the rare sight of a Joe Ledley goal. “You always want to win, get a result, we never got that but we got a lot of other things, so I’m not too despondent,” Coleman said.
Joe Allen was arguably the pick of the Wales players. Although he saw a first-half penalty saved by Jasper Cillessen after Terence Kongolo was penalised for handling – Ledley turned in the loose ball to register a first goal for his country in more than five years – Allen was the driving force in the Wales midfield and set up Huws’s second-half equaliser with a superb cross from the left after a well-worked short-corner routine.
While Holland’s defending left much to be desired on that occasion – Huws arrived totally unmarked to send a glancing header beyond Cillessen, and the visitors had been slow to react to the short corner before that – Wales never looked comfortable at the back and there was a sense of fear within Coleman’s side whenever Robben had the ball at his feet.
It was Bas Dost, though, who had given Holland the lead, the Wolfsburg striker making the most of the freedom he was afforded in the Wales penalty area to meet Daryl Janmaat’s deep cross with a far-post header that Wayne Hennessey was unable to keep out.
Ledley’s goal, deep into first-half injury-time, pegged Holland back but the visitors quickly regained the advantage with a classic Robben goal. Scampering down the Wales left, where Ben Davies was left exposed, Robben shifted the ball on to his left foot and there was a sense of inevitability about what was going to happen next as he glided across the area before dispatching a low, curling effort into the bottom corner.
Wales, to their credit, refused to accept defeat. George Williams came agonisingly close to touching in Tom Lawrence’s low cross as they sensed a vulnerability in Holland that would be soon be exploited when Huws nodded in to make it 2-2. Robben, however, was not finished for the night. Set free by Dost, the Holland captain found himself one-on-one with Owain Fon Williams and there was only going to be one winner.
Guardian
