Bulgaria inflict home defeat on sloppy Dutch
Reuters - Saturday 26 May 2012, 20:52
Bulgaria's Ilyan Mizanski
headed a stoppage-time goal to inflict a shock 2-1 home defeat
on Netherlands in a Euro 2012 warm-up match on Saturday.
Coach Bert van Marwijk, who named his 23-man squad for the
tournament earlier in the day, suffered his first setback after
15 minutes when central defender Joris Mathijsen limped off and
was replaced by Wilfred Bouma.
"Joris felt something in his hamstring and wanted to avoid
any risk" Van Marwijk told reporters.
"But according to the medical staff it looks like he pulled
his hamstring and no tearing.
"It was an annoying match especially after the penalty,
before that we did everything well although we did not create a
lot of chances.
"That had to with the choices we make and the pace in
passing, but in the final half-hour we did everything wrong and
dropped our organisation completely."
The Dutch never got striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar into the
game but after Valeri Bojinov had hit the crossbar with a
20-metre free-kick for Bulgaria, Robin van Persie opened the
scoring for the Dutch.
Ivelin Popov equalised early in the second half from the
penalty spot after a handball by Rafael van der Vaart.
The Dutch brought on Bayern Munich forward Arjen Robben in
the final 15 minutes but defensive sloppiness allowed the
unmarked Mizanski to head the winner at the near post in
stoppage time.