Oranje sqeeze

Amsterdam, June 14

Denzel Dumfries picked a pretty good time to score his first international goal.

After missing an open chance in the first half, Dumfries helped set up two goals in the second and then headed in an 85th-minute winner on Sunday night to give the Netherlands a 3-2 win over Ukraine at the European Championship.

“I kept believing that a chance would come and then you have to be in the right place,” Dumfries said. The winning header came only minutes after Ukraine had scored two late goals to equalise. The victory vindicated Netherlands coach Frank de Boer’s decision to play a 5-3-2 formation at the Euro 2020 with Dumfries and Patrick van Aanholt as wingbacks instead of the 4-3-3 attacking formation favoured by many Dutch fans.

“We dominated, created chances, and that is what we want to see,” De Boer said.

The Dutch were playing in their first major soccer tournament in seven years. The last time was at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when they reached the semifinals.

Stand-in Netherlands captain Georginio Wijnaldum put the 1988 European champions in the lead in the 52nd minute with a powerful shot to ignite a five-goal second half. Wout Weghorst made it 2-0 in the 59th.

A cross from the right by Dumfries set up the first and his run into the box caused havoc in the Ukraine’s defence for Weghorst’s goal. “Fantastic evening for him,” Wijnaldum said. — AP

Gem of a game: France, Germany meet early

Munich: France and Germany usually play each other in the latter stages of major soccer tournaments. Not this time. The teams will meet in the group stage of a European Championship or World Cup for the first time on Tuesday when they open their Euro 2020 campaigns in Munich. Their last match at a major tournament came in the semifinals of Euro 2016. Antoine Griezmann scored twice for France in the 2-0 victory over then World champions Germany in Marseille. Germany has never really recovered, and though the French lost to Portugal in the final five years ago, they went on to win the World Cup two years later. Remarkably, no player in Germany’s current squad has ever scored in a European Championship match. Thomas Muller, who has played 11 tournament games, missed a penalty in the 2016 quarterfinals shootout win over Italy. AP

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