Belgium 1-4 Netherlands, France 1-2 Denmark: Nations League – how it happened | League of Nations

Thank you for joining me. A nice summary will fall soon.

full-time results

Croatia 0-3 Austria
France 1-2 Denmark

Kazakhstan 2-0 Azerbaijan
Belarus 0-1 Slovakia

Latvia 3-0 Andorra
Liechtenstein 0-2 Moldova

Belgium 1-4 Netherlands

Mr. Jolly strikes again.

Roberto Martinez is the only manager to lose games by three goals to Louis van Gaal in both the Premier League and Nations League.

– Richard Jolly 🇺🇦 (@RichJolly) June 3, 2022

full time! Belgium 1-4 Netherlands

Netherlands: good, Belgium: bad, Boyata: cruel.

Updated at 21:46 BST

full time! France 1-2 Denmark

A wonderful night for the Danes and Cornelius.

Updated at 21:45 BST

GATE! Belgium 1-4 Netherlands (Batsuhuayi, 90+3)

Who cares?

Belgium 0-4 Netherlands: I still can’t believe Roberto Mancini picked Boyata over Nedum Onuoha.

“Boyata has been a weak link in the ‘Golden Generation’ for some time,” says Dan Christmas. “All these excellent players, but Belgium just needed one or two more very good players to look really world class. If that makes sense…”

He was bloody terrible.

France 1-2 Denmark: Hojberg is caught late and looks on deck in pain.

France 1-2 Denmark: A chance for an immediate equalizer when an unmarked Rabiot sends a weak header straight to Schmeichel.

GATE! France 1-2 Denmark (Cornelius, 89′)

Speaking of which… Cornelius charges over the top for a pass, takes the defender in check with a few touches of the ball and slams the ball into the net roof.

Updated at 21.40 BST

France 1-1 Denmark: The Danes are looking good for the future…

France 1-1 Denmark: Kante aims from 30 yards and rolls his shot past Schmeichel, but the ball bounces off the post.

Belgium 0-4 Netherlands: The ball is behind the net. Batshuayi finds himself on the wrong side of defence, he scoops the ball on goal but Cillelesen saves it only to see Castagne tap home. Celebrations are muted as Batshuayi knows what VAR confirms: he’s flagged for offside.

Belgium 0-4 Netherlands: De Bruyne looks pretty annoyed to still be on the pitch for this shitty show.

France 1-1 Denmark: What a saving! Olsen slices in from the right and hammers in a left-footed shot from 25 yards which Lloris lunges at to prevent him going into the top corner.

GATE! Belgium 0-4 Netherlands (Depay, 66′)

Boyata has a stinker. Blind sees space to run to, he heads a long ball in the path of Depay who is about 10 yards away as Boyata lost it completely and he hits home.

Updated at 21:28 BST

GATE! France 1-1 Denmark (Cornelius, 68′)

The big man stays on the side to hit a looped ball over the French defense.

Updated at 21:23 BST

The Benzema target for UK readers…

The GENIUS that is Karim Benzema is on full display again! 🤯

Absolutely outstanding dribble and finish, set up by a beautiful flick by Nkunku and France are ahead 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/5T2zLkmCCu

— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) June 3, 2022

Belgium 0-3 Netherlands: To be fair to Belgium, De Bruyne previously announced that he doesn’t care about these games. Ban football in June!

GATE! Belgium 0-3 Netherlands (Dumfries, 62nd)

Everywhere in Brussels. Berghuis circles a shot from the edge of the box which Mignolet fires in Blind’s way, from where he crosses for Dumfries to knock a third home.

Updated at 21:23 BST

Belgium 0-2 Netherlands: Cillesen finally saves! A beautiful through ball reaches Trossard, who deflects a shot on goal from the penalty area, but the goalkeeper is behind it.

Belgium 0-2 Netherlands: Belgium is currently playing like a team that finds the Nations League among themselves.

Thoughts are prayers with my good friend James who is recovering after eating some reheated rice on Wednesday.

France 1-0 Denmark: Varane is the latest French player to hit the deck. He looks like a man who’s just remembered he’s a Manchester United defender as he awaits his treatment. Looks live like he shot his calf.

Belgium 0-2 Netherlands: Vertonghen shoots an overhead kick from six yards over the bar.

“I’m not opposed to the technology moving forward, but I’m still not sure I see the point in non-alcoholic beer?” asks Tom Hopkins. “There are so many other flavors to explore, why stick to the same ones on drinking and non-drinking nights?

“Sorry, I was trying to find another example of a weak, watery version of something important to compare, but I came up empty.”

I think it’s the calming nature of it. I don’t often drink beer at home either.

GATE! Belgium 0-2 Netherlands (Depay, 51st)

Depay dashes into the room cleared by Boyata and nearly whips a shot through Mignolet.

Updated 21/06 BST

GATE! France 1-0 Denmark (Benzema, 51′)

WHAT A GOAL! The striker dribbles into the box from the right flank, plays a quick one-two, then outsmarts three defenders with ridiculously quick feet before firing into the corner. Incredible stuff from an incredible player.

Updated at 20:58 BST

Belgium 0-1 Netherlands: Mertens, who came on at half-time, makes an immediate impression by scraping his cleats across Blind’s calf to earn a yellow card.

“Your choice of half-time refreshment makes me realize that the Nations League is something like non-alcoholic beer.” says Peter Oh. “Not terrible, but not very good either. A bit of a weird aftertaste and none of the feeling associated with reality. Something you wouldn’t choose but could endure if there were no other options.”

You should get some Adnam’s Ghost Ship 0.5%.

France 0-0 Denmark: Benzema volleys from close range but Schmeichel braces himself to parry the Frenchman’s attempt and the defenders crawl the ball away.

Second half

Here we go again!

With France vs Denmark live on Box Nation in the UK, I am afraid which channel is showing Liechtenstein vs Moldova. Enjoy your meal?

Over the past 10 years, the improvement of non-alcoholic beer and chips has truly changed the world for the better.

Just a non-alcoholic beer and a piece of brownie. I’m living the platinum anniversary dream.

Kári Tulinius emails: “I’m not saying I’m having a hard time staying involved, but I’ve started reading the Wikipedia entry on the Belgian stadium’s namesake and it’s never a good sign ethically when it’s around in any of the subsections the murder of another person. Nice goal, mind you, from a Dutchman. Enjoy the match!”

I GIVE MY BEST.

Updated at 20:51 BST

halftime

Emotional 45 minutes around Europe come to an end. France and Denmark are still goalless but we have a goal in Belgium.

Results:

Croatia 0-1 Austria
France 0-0 Denmark

Result: Kazakhstan 2-0 Azerbaijan
Belarus 0-0 Slovakia

Result: Latvia 3-0 Andorra
Liechtenstein 0-1 Moldova

Belgium 0-1 Netherlands

France 0-0 Denmark: Mbappe is on the pitch looking relatively dejected while shaking his head. He gets up but doesn’t look happy and wanders across the field. He didn’t seem to get hurt with anyone around him…

Belgium 0-1 Netherlands: Dumfries comes down to the right and crosses into the penalty area. The ball hits Castagne in the face and the referee awards a penalty. It goes to VAR who tells the referee to go to the monitor and he rightly upsets him.

“If I were Timber I would sign for Forest over United for obvious reasons.” says Peter Ah.

I think Forest is for keeping trees up, not cutting them down.

GATE! Belgium 0-1 Netherlands (40th Bergwijn)

A wonderful loft from Bergwijn. He takes the ball with his back to goal 30 yards from goal, turns, gets it off his feet and fires a powerful shot into the corner.

Updated at 20.36 BST

Belgium 0-0 Netherlands: De Bruyne has an opportunity to score a free kick 25 yards from goal. He lifts the ball over the wall, but directly into Cillelesen’s hands.

Belgium 0-0 Netherlands. The Dutch are great – the home fans even start booing. Depay is the last to fly, but his dipping shot safely jumps into Mignolet’s hands.

Belgium 0-0 Netherlands: Another chance for Berghuis. Bergwijn lays the ball down to an oncoming Berghuis, but he curls a rising shot high and wide.

We passed the half hour and only Liechtenstein vs Moldova have a goal.