Manchester United’s Matthijs de Ligt returned to form for the Netherlands in a 1-1 draw away to Bosnia and Herzegovina last night.
The draw was enough to see the Dutch qualify for the quarter final stage of the Nations League in second place in Group C behind Germany.
They had 12 shots in comparison to the hosts’ eight and had the lion’s share of possession, with 64% of the ball.
De Ligt had lost his place in the starting line up in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Hungary but alongside teammate Joshua Zirkzee, regained his place in the first eleven yesterday.
The centre back impressed as he was given a score of 7 by Sofascore and played the entire 90 minutes of the game.
He did not have the busiest night of his career, only being required to make one block and one interception as the hosts managed just three shots on target.
De Ligt did win two out of his three ground duels but was uncharacteristically weak in the air, only coming out on top in three out of his seven aerial battles.
One of the reasons that the big Dutchman was brought in during the summer window was his ability on the ball and will probably be required to demonstrate this playing in a back three for Ruben Amorim at United.
He did not disappoint on the night, amassing a huge 117 touches of the ball and completing 102 out of his 111 passes for a great accuracy of 92%.
The Dutch centre back also played one key pass in the encounter and completed five out of his nine long balls to show off his passing range.
His club colleague Joshua Zirkzee had less of an impact unfortunately.
The struggling forward’s future at the club is already reported to be at risk and he did little to enhance his prospects in 77 minutes of action against Bosnia.
He was given a score of 6.5 and had only 32 touches of the ball, completing 76% of his passes.
Zirkzee had little impact in front of goal as he had no shots on or off target and had one effort blocked by the Bosnian defence.
He lost the ball eight times and was also ruled offside once in yet another frustrating night for the forward.
Both players will hope to kickstart their United career under the guidance of Ruben Amorim and will be keen to make his first starting line up against Ipswich Town on Sunday.
Featured image Srdjan Stevanovic via Getty Images
Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
