The Netherlands and Germany are going head-to-head tonight to play for the final ticket to the Paris Olympics 2024.
After narrowly making it into the semi-finals of the Nations League, the Dutch national team had to face reigning world champions, Spain, in their fight for Olympic qualification.
The Spanish team emerged from the match victorious, beating the Dutch 3-0 in Seville, last Friday.
The German national team also lost their fixture 2-1 that day, against France, despite Guilia Gwinn’s incredible second half penalty providing a glimmer of hope for the DFB.
As the games are to be hosted by France, they automatically qualify for the Olympics, so their win meant that the third ticket would be decided by the third place play-offs of the UEFA Nations League.
This will take place at the Abe Lenstra stadium in Heerenveen, but will playing on home soil be enough to overcome the Dutch team’s history of 13 losses to the DFB?
The Netherlands have also only participated in the Olympic games once, but Germany haven’t qualified since 2016, so both teams will be aiming to prove themselves.
ℹ️ Vivianne Miedema and Victoria Pelova are not available to play in the UEFA Women’s Nations League game against Germany on Wednesday. They have left the national team squad and are returning to Arsenal.#NEDGER #UWNL pic.twitter.com/9gGFQXkUwf
— OranjeLeeuwinnen (@oranjevrouwen) February 27, 2024
Dutch defender, Kerstin Casparij, said: “I don’t think you can describe in words how big it’s going to be.”
She added: “To play them at home, on home soil, hopefully gives us a good advantage.”
The match will kick off at 7:45pm and will be available to watch on Star+.
Featured image courtesy of Antoon Kuper via Flickr. No changes were made to this image. License details found here.