The Netherlands routed Greece 7-0 on Friday in a statement Nations League victory to stay unbeaten under new coach Xavi.
Tijjani Reijnders scored a hat trick and Jurriën Timber had two goals in a rampant win for the Netherlands, which was 5-0 up by halftime and equaled the biggest win in the eight-year history of the Nations League.
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“The first half was amazing, so I have to congratulate the players. But it’s just one game,” Xavi said. “We need to continue like this, but this is the way. The players are training so hard. I’m very proud of them.”
Beaming and holding up three fingers, Reijnders celebrated a hat trick which came off a series of slick team moves to tear apart the Greek defense in Amsterdam.
It was the second hat trick of Reijnders career, with both coming in the last two weeks. The former Manchester City midfielder also scored three times for his Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah at the end of last month.
“It’s amazing, especially scoring a hat-trick for the national team,” Reijnders told UEFA. “So I’m very happy. This is what we’ve been training for, and today it went very well.”
Crysencio Summerville got the Netherlands started with a sixth-minute opener before Reijnders scored three in the space of 21 minutes, Timber added two more and Donyell Malen a seventh.
The Netherlands joins England, Germany and Finland as the fourth team to win a Nations League game by seven goals. England’s 7-0 win over Croatia came just last month.
“I certainly enjoyed it,” said Netherlands captain Frenkie de Jong. “I hope everyone did, including the people at home. Because this was fun for everyone, including us on the pitch. I think we were very effective. We kept getting into good positions to create chances and goals.”
The result was a major blow for Greece, who were previously unbeaten in this season’s Nations League and had scored an impressive win at Germany in September.
Friday was the first time Greece had conceded seven or more goals in a match since May 1989, in a 7-1 defeat at Denmark in World Cup qualifying.
“There’s not much to say about today,” Greece’s Arsenal winger Christos Tzolis told UEFA. “We had a very bad start; we conceded every chance the opponent had. I think the first half was the worst performance of the national team.”
He added: “Everything is very bad about this game.”
Germany, who beat Serbia 3-1 on Friday, are level with Greece and three points behind Group A2 leaders the Netherlands before Jürgen Klopp’s side play on Monday in Berlin.
The top two in the group advance to the quarterfinals, with head-to-head record as the tiebreaker. The Netherlands, Germany and Greece are all able to qualify. Serbia are last after losing all of their five games.
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
