The team Sportin Wales are supporting in the EUROs, as voted by you the public, is…*drum roll please*…the Netherlands!

They won the public vote in group D ahead of France, Austria and Poland before just pipping Portugal in our semi-finals alongside Ukraine.

Then in our grand finale against Scotland yesterday they took home the crown with 59% of the vote.

Netherlands is the land of clogs, windmills and plants of all shapes and sizes, but who are the players who will be leading their nation, and us, to glory at EURO 2024?

Goalkeeper

Starting off with the goalkeepers and Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen appears to have won the race to be the Dutch number one ahead of Feyenoord’s Justin Bijlow and Brentford keeper Mark Flekken.

Verbruggen faced a battle throughout the domestic season with Jason Steele for the starting birth at the Amex Stadium ending up with four clean sheets in 21 starts in the Premier League.

However, with the Dutch he managed two clean sheets in the 4-0 friendly wins against Scotland and Canada along with keeping the ball out of his net three times from four in qualifying.

Defence

In front of Verbruggen, one of the centre backs births will see the imposing figure of Virgil van Dijk wearing the captains armband. He may appear in a back three, however we expect it to be a back four in defence with Manchester City’s Nathan Ake at left back.

If Netherlands do opt for a back three, they have plenty of options for the third centre back with Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven, Ajax’s Daley Blind, Feyenoord’s Lutsharel Geertruida and Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt having all lined up there previously.

However, we believe they will select Inter Milan’s Stefan de Vrij at right centre back a move which will see Netherlands operate with a back three in possession allowing de Vrij’s Internazionale teammate Denzel Dumfries to bomb forward and provide the goal threat he did in EURO 2020 where he scored twice.

Midfield

Netherlands’ midfield has been hit by injuries with key men Frenkie de Jong and Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners, both pulling out of the squad.

To fill the hole, in come AC Milan’s Tijani Reijnders who will likely play on the left of a three along with PSV Eindhoven pair Joey Veerman and Jerdy Schouten.

Both are likely to feature ahead of current and former Liverpool players Ryan Gravenberch and Georginio Wijnaldum, respectively.

Forwards

Up front the Dutch have an array of options and do have the possibility to change things if the scoreline isn’t going their way.

However, expect PSG loanee and RB Leipzig’s star boy Xavi Simons to start after an impressive season, along with former Manchester United man Memphis Depay and Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo.

The options to change things are aplenty with Wout Weghorst who’s late double nearly dumped Argentina out of the World Cup, along with former Tottenham winger Steven Bergwijn and Bayer Leverkusen speedster Jeremie Frimpong.

 

Their group

The Dutch begin their campaign in group D on Sunday against Wales’ vanquishers Poland, before facing France on Friday and finishing with Austria on the 25th of June.

We are backing them to at least finish second in their group which would see them face second place in Group E which we think will be Ukraine behind Belgium.

Should they win that, they will likely come up against Portugal in the quarterfinals and then anything can happen!

In terms of odds, Dragon Bet have Netherlands at 16/1 to win the tournament whilst Memphis Depay is at a tasty 40/1 to win the EURO’s golden boot as top goalscorer.

 

Hup Holland Hup!