Netherlands 4-0 Iceland: Routine Win Overshadowed by De Jong Injury

Xavi Simons’s first international goal set the Netherlands on their way to a second 4-0 win in four days as they outclassed Iceland in their final Euro 2024 warm-up game.

However, the evening ended on a sour note as national team coach Ronald Koeman confirmed that Frenkie de Jong would not be fit for the tournament in Germany. De Jong has not played since spraining an ankle while playing for Barcelona against Real Madrid in the Clasico on April 21.

Koeman told NOS he had hoped to involve the midfielder at some point during the tournament but made the decision on Monday afternoon to withdraw him from the squad.

“He’s been experiencing reactions every time he trains, and we’ve concluded that he won’t be 100% fit to play at this level for the next three weeks. I knew it was tight for the Poland game. I thought he could maybe play part of the match against France and we could have him for the final game, but that’s not the case. We have to consider the health of the player.”

Koopmeiners Doubtful Atalanta midfielder Teun Koopmeiners also faces a fitness test on Tuesday after suffering a groin injury during the warm-up against Iceland, which forced him out of the match.

In a first half in Rotterdam that sometimes slowed to walking pace, Simons smashed in Denzel Dumfries’s knock-down from close range in the 23rd minute after intelligent work from Tijjani Reijnders and Joey Veerman created the opening.

Iceland, buoyed by their stunning 1-0 win against England at Wembley, kept the Dutch at bay for the rest of the first half. However, four minutes after the break, captain Virgil van Dijk rose above the defense to head in a corner.

Donyell Malen ran onto a deep pass from Memphis Depay to lash in a third after 78 minutes, before Wout Weghorst rounded off the scoring in injury time. Depay had the ball in the net in the 80th minute when he latched onto Jeremie Frimpong’s low cross, but Veerman had brushed the ball with his hand in the build-up to the goal.

The Dutch begin their Euro 2024 campaign on Sunday against Poland in Hamburg. The Poles beat Turkey 2-1 in their final warm-up game in Warsaw on Monday.