Holland humble Scotland with attacking flair in World Cup qualifier

By Roddy Forsyth in Amsterdam

Holland humble Scotland with attacking flair in World Cup qualifier: Future's Oranje: Dutch players celebrate Dirk Kuyt's goal as Darren Fletcher (left) walks away

Not for the first time in the Amsterdam ArenA, Scotland were outclassed by Holland, who extended their run of successive World Cup qualifying victories to 17 with goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie before the break and a penalty kick from Dirk Kuyt – his 10th for the Dutch on his 50th international appearance.

The Scots were entitled to sustain a grievance about a disallowed goal, by Gary Caldwell just before Kuyt’s penalty, but the post-mortems will condemn Allan McGregor – winning his fourth cap as replacement for Craig Gordon – for standing idle when Van Persie beat him with the close-range header from a corner kick that put the Dutch beyond reach.

Afterwards, Scotland manager George Burley said he was unhappy with the referee, both for his side’s disallowed goal and for Holland’s second strike.

“It was always going to be a difficult game. We gave it everything we’ve got but Holland are a tremendous team; they’re one of the top six in the world,” he said.

“But we scored a perfectly good goal. Why the the referee disallowed it... Certainly, decisions went totally against us.”

Kenny Miller, Scotland’s lone forward, discovered early on that he had the legs of the Dutch centre-back pairing of Andre Ooijer and Joris Mathijsen and was calling for speedy ball beyond them. His eagerness cost him when he went too early for a prompt by Scott Brown and was caught offside, but his timing was perfection when Darren Fletcher pitched a chip over the orange jerseys on the right edge of the box.

Miller peeled off Mathijsen’s shoulder and gathered possession five yards clear of his opponent but as the Rangers forward cut across the penalty area, with an outstanding opportunity to beat Maarten Stekelnburg one on one, he got the ball tangled between his feet and allowed Mathijsen to recover.

Shortly after the midway point of the first half, Bert van Marwijk’s players decided to move up a couple of gears, a shift that should have cost Brown a yellow card when he took Robben out of the play close to the edge of the Scottish box, but was reprieved by the referee’s unsightedness.

Then the Scots’ bubble burst, pricked by the man who had predicted he would score. The damage began on the Dutch right when the ball was played infield to Mark van Bommel, who had drifted into space away from Teale, who spun a tempting cross towards the back post where Caldwell found that he had to deal with two opponents, one of whom was Huntelaar, who planted his header across McGregor into the far corner.

It was imperative that Scotland reach the break without sustaining further damage but they were sabotaged by McGregor’s inaction when they conceded a corner kick three minutes into stoppage time. Robben’s delivered to the six-yard line where Van Persie was allowed a free header into the roof of the net.

The contest was effectively over and the Dutch dropped back to training-ground mode. The outcome would likely not have been different but the closing stages would have been much more intriguing had the referee not ruled out a Caldwell header with 15 minutes remaining on the grounds – feeble it must be said – that Teale was obstructing the goalkeeper when he seemed to be doing no more than standing his ground.

Scarcely had that disappointment registered than Berra fouled Huntelaar and Kuyt easily converted the penalty to secure the Dutch a comfortable victory.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk