Rafael van der Vaart still sees one bright spot for the Netherlands national team: 'He was magnificent'

The Netherlands snatched a point against Greece in the Nations League on Thursday night at the death: 2-2. Rafael van der Vaart picked out two bright spots for the Dutch side: Noa Lang and Tijjani Reijnders.

The poor Dutch side got everything wrong in the first half. Goals from Fotis Ioannidis and Giorgos Masouras sent Greece into the break 2-0 up.

At half-time, head coach Xavi acted decisively: Ruben van Bommel, Quinten Timber and Guus Til made way for Lang, Ryan Gravenberch and Reijnders. It worked. The Netherlands improved sharply and fought back to 2-2 through goals from Virgil van Dijk and Reijnders.

"I think it reflects well on a coach when he admits his own mistake," Van der Vaart said afterwards on NOS, referring to Xavi's three half-time substitutions. "You also have a lot of coaches who stick with what they picked and give it another 15 minutes. But it was simply a dramatic first half, so make the changes."

"Noa Lang was brilliant and Reijnders played superbly," the analyst said approvingly. "So as a coach, you've still turned it around, even though of course you started really hopelessly."

After the break, Wim Kieft felt the Netherlands looked better on the ball. "It's very easy to say now that Til and Timber aren't good enough, but Reijnders and Gravenberch are a different level," said Kieft.

On that point, Van der Vaart agreed. "Dynamic and quick. It couldn't have been worse. When you come on in that situation, you also play with much more freedom. I do have to add that. But you could just see much more hunger. They were immediately back on top of them as well."