Spurs international watch: Defender plays whole 90 minutes
By Tom Vinall
Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven made his first ever competitive start for The Netherlands, as they faced Hungary in their nations league group. A warm up game for the European Championships against Canada in June was his only other start, since making his debut 12 months ago.
For this game, manager Ronaldo Koeman opted for van de Ven as a left back, going with Virgin Van Dijk of Liverpool and Stefan De Vrij of Inter Milan as the duo in central defence.
It was a tough game for van de Ven’s side, who first found themselves a goal down midway through the first half, and then a man down after Van Dijk picked up two yellow cards within the space of a few minutes in the latter stages of the encounter.
As a result of the red card, Matthijs De Ligt came on, the player who van de Ven burst past to assist Brennan Johnson’s opener at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago.
However, despite The Netherlands being down to ten men, they were able to rally together and get an equaliser, after fellow fullback Denzel Dumfries scored a few minutes after the red card - to give the Oranje a point.
Over the 90 minutes, van de Ven recorded; three clearances, 111 touches, completed 92 passes out of 96 attempted, completed 2/3 long balls, and drew three fouls. He was not dribbled past all game despite playing as a left-back here.
This draw leaves The Netherlands second in their nations league group, with five points from three games. Next up is a trip to group leaders and neighbours Germany on Monday night, with a 19:45 BST kick off for that one. With Van Dijk suspended, we could see van de Ven start that one, particularly with the Liverpool defender being a left sided centre back.