Afellay and Van der Vaart shine in Dutch win
Reuters - Wednesday 30 May 2012, 21:54
World Cup runners-up
Netherlands, stung by injury worries which look to have receded,
recovered from a shock loss to Bulgaria to defeat Slovakia 2-0
in a Euro 2012 warm-up match on Wednesday.
Wesley Sneijder was taken off as a precaution because of a
sore ankle while Joris Mathijsen, who tweaked a hamstring in
Saturday's 2-1 defeat by the Bulgarians, gave the camp a boost
ahead of their Group B opener against Denmark on June 9.
"Sneijder had a sore ankle but he will be fine, while
Wilfred Bouma had a head injury and visited a hospital for
checks," coach Bert van Marwijk told reporters.
"Mathijsen is looking fine and according to the reports of
our medical staff he might be recovered in time for the Denmark
match."
During a lively opening five minutes both teams came close
to scoring when Marek Hamsik hit the bar with a header before
Nigel de Jong headed a corner-kick just wide.
A minute later, the Dutch opened the scoring when a fine
cross from Ibrahim Afellay was deflected past his own goalkeeper
by Kornel Salata.
Playmaker Sneijder was replaced by Rafael van der Vaart and
the Tottenham Hotspur man scored the second in the 76th minute
after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had been stopped by two defenders.
"During big tournaments you will face opponents who will
play like Slovakia today and I'm satisfied that we kept our
patience the complete match where we lost it after an hour on
Saturday," the coach added.
Netherlands will play their final warm-up on Saturday when
they host Northern Ireland.
Germany and Portugal are their other Euro group opponents.