Netherlands coach Xavi says he was at fault for poor first half in Greece

THESSALONIKI, Greece, Oct 2 : Netherlands coach Xavi Hernandez said he was to blame for his side’s poor first-half performance in Thursday’s Nations League game against Greece after they trailed 2-0 before fighting back to draw.

The result maintained the former World Cup winner’s unbeaten start to his tenure in charge of the Dutch national team, but it proved a close-run contest with Tijjani Reijnders equalising a minute from the end at Stadio Toumbas.

Greece had opened up a two-goal lead at the break through Fotis Ioannidis and Georgios Masouras before Virgil van Dijk halved the deficit just before the hour mark.

“I’m never happy with a draw. But the first half was very poor. That was my fault as a coach. Maybe I made things unclear for the players by making too many changes,” Xavi said.

Xavi made three changes at the start of the second half, and the Dutch dominated from then on.

“I’m just trying to be honest, because that’s who I am," said Xavi. "At halftime, I told the players exactly the same thing: sorry, because I think this is my fault. Forget the first half, now we’re going to restructure things in the second.”

Ryan Gravenberch, Noa Lang, and Reijnders all made a big impact, but Xavi preferred to talk about a change in approach after the break.

“I think above all that the system was different. We played with a diamond in midfield, and that created more chances," he explained. "The pitch became more open, and we had more speed with the ball.”

The Dutch play the last of their four fixtures in the international window against Serbia in Eindhoven on Sunday.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Peter Rutherford)