In Eindhoven, beneath the familiar glow of the Philips Stadion, Xavi Hernández completed his first international window as Netherlands coach without defeat. Sunday’s 2-1 win over Serbia gave the Oranje two victories and two draws from an unusually busy four-match spell, enough to put them top of Nations League A Group 2 on eight points, ahead of Greece on goals scored.
It is a promising opening rather than a finished work. The former Barcelona coach has seen his side draw with Germany in a performance that suggested they deserved more, share the points with a Greece team enjoying a strong spell, and beat Serbia twice. For a Netherlands side beginning a new chapter, the early results have brought both security and signs of a more ambitious direction.
Serbia arrived in Eindhoven still searching for their first point of the group, having lost each of their previous three matches, and they spent much of the afternoon trying to contain Dutch possession. Xavi’s team settled quickly around the ball and created the stronger impression before taking the lead shortly after the half-hour.
Teun Koopmeiners delivered a free-kick into the penalty area in the 31st minute, but no teammate or defender made contact as the ball travelled through and ended up beyond Vanja Milinkovic-Savic. Serbia replied four minutes later, with Cvetkovic meeting Terzic’s cross with a header to restore parity.
The equaliser did not change the wider pattern. Netherlands continued to dictate the contest and found their decisive second goal in the 72nd minute. Joshua Zirkzee finished a sweeping move that had contained 30 uninterrupted Dutch passes, a sequence that underlined the control Xavi is seeking to establish.
Serbia threw players forward late on and forced Bart Verbruggen into important saves, but the visitors could not find another equaliser. Their fourth defeat leaves them without a point from the window, while Netherlands leave it with momentum, first place in the group and a first home win of the Xavi era.
There were moments when Serbia caused more danger than the hosts would have liked, yet Eindhoven offered a useful snapshot of the new Netherlands: patient on the ball, capable of constructing a long attacking passage, and still learning how to turn command into authority. The tests ahead will be tougher, but Xavi’s first examinations have produced no failure marks.
