The meeting between Morocco and Netherlands in the last 32 might have come too early at the World Cup, Dutch coach Ronald Koeman suggested on the eve of Monday’s clash between the two contenders in Monterrey.
The two countries were both top eight finishers at the last World Cup four years ago with Morocco becoming the first African and Arab side to reach the semi-final and the Dutch losing narrowly on penalties to eventual winners Argentina in the quarter-final.
“It’s a big thing for this game to take place now because we are both teams that ought to go further than this stage,” Koeman said.
“It's a very important match between two teams that want to go as far as possible in the tournament and a match of this nature comes a little too soon at the World Cup, , I would say,
“But it is what it is and it’ll be a very attractive match. We're going be playing offensively,” the Dutch coach promised.
Both he and captain Virgil van Dijk cut confident figures as they broke down their approach to the last of Tuesday’s three matches in the first knockout round of the tournament.
“They have a lot of talent, but so do we and we know where it is that we need to stop them, break them down, and we are not worried,” said Koeman.
Van Dijk singled out Morocco right back Achraf Hakimi as one of the best in world football. Other players to watch, he said, were striker Ismael Saibari after an outstanding season at PSV Eindhoven and midfielder Brahim Diaz.
“They have a lot of good players. The defensive midfielder breaking through now, young guy who's doing well is another,” he added, referring to 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi.
“We analysed them, we’ve trained, we had two very good sessions and everything is said and done and now it's down to us. I'm really looking forward to it. It is going to be a challenging game in challenging circumstances but I'm looking forward to it. These are the games you want to be part of.”
Van Dijk said he did not feel the Dutch need a convincing victory over Morocco to make a statement about their potential to be World Cup winners.
“I don't think we have to put any statements down. What I think is that it is just a situation that we are where we are. It is a fantastic game, I think, for neutral to go and watch. For us, it's just the reality. We (are) here now, we prepare for Morocco.”
