More than a year later, Frenkie de Jong returned to play for the Dutch national team. Koeman started him against Hungary (4-0) and the Barça midfielder played 68 minutes before being substituted.
The good news that seemed to be his reappearance after the ordeal of injuries that followed him turned somewhat into concern after the game due to his words, not as flattering as expected.
De Jong
“I still have moments of sensitivity while playing, due to injuries, I need more games”
De Jong’s feelings, apparently, were not the best on the green. “I still have moments of sensitivity while playing, due to injuries, I need more games and minutes to gain confidence. I’m not saying it’s a risk, but the feeling is not the same as it was before,” he declared.
Of course, he left some doors open to optimism: “I think that should improve from now on.” And he added: “I need to regain the confidence to do certain things on the field. I knew it was going to be like this, that’s why we’re not that worried. “It’s been a while since I played, I’m happy to be back.”
The Netherlands’ next match will come on Tuesday, in Bosnia, in a match with nothing at stake after the mathematical classification of Koeman’s team for the quarterfinals of the Nations League.
Despite everything, De Jong has already announced that he will not be the starter, although he will travel with the rest of the expedition. “I will stay with the national team, but I will not start against Bosnia,” he stated, confirming that the feelings are not the best.
THE CHRONICLE
Netherlands, 4 – Hungary, 0
With the penalty goals from Wout Weghorst and Cody Gakpo and with the successes of Denzel Dumfries and Teun Koopmeiners, the Netherlands team signed a key victory (4-0) over Hungary to reach the quarterfinals of the Nations League in a duel marked by the fading of Ádám Szalai on the Magyar bench.
The three points that Ronald Koeman’s men added were left in the background due to the incident that Szalai was involved in a few minutes into the match. Referee Jesús Gil Manzano had to stop the match because the former Real Madrid Castilla player, retired from football in 2023 and now a member of Hungary’s coaching staff, collapsed on his bench.
He was immediately treated by the medical services present at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam while he was surrounded by a tarp and by his own teammates to preserve his privacy. He was taken to a hospital in the Dutch capital and shortly afterwards his federation reported that he was “stable and conscious” while he waited to undergo the relevant medical tests.
The crash took just over ten minutes to restart. He stopped at eight and came back at twenty. And Hungary, which came out well on the field and even had a good chance from Andras Schafer, was never the same again. And even more so when almost immediately after the ball was rolled again, he regretted how the VAR corroborated a penalty against the Magyar team that Weghorst did not miss.
Then, Ronald Koeman’s men, who gave the start to Frenkie De Jong (he had not played for the Netherlands since September 2023), began to completely dominate the rest of the first half. After two good interventions by Denes Dibusz from a shot by Tijjani Reijnders and Donyell Malen, they scored the second, just before half-time and also from eleven meters: on this occasion, a clear foul by Zsolt Nagy inside the area allowed Gakpo to celebrate The same for the Netherlands.
That advantage was enough for the Dutch team and definitive for Hungary, which never showed signs of being able to recover from the scare that Szalai gave at the beginning of the match. The passage through the locker room brought more dominance from Koeman’s team and a shot against the crossbar by Weghorst as soon as he left the locker room preceded the third, the work of Dumfries, who hit the target with a volley from inside the area.
And at the end, Dumfries himself assisted Koopmeiners, who closed the score with a header to certify the Netherlands’ passage to the quarterfinals. Germany, intractable, will go first in its group, while Koeman’s team, second, could be Spain’s rival in the next round
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