64' Loria has to be quick off his line to race forward and smash away a clearance in front of Depay. Initially, it was De Jong's throughball through the middle that nearly teed up the forward, however, the Georgian goalkeeper read play well there.
63' Wijnaldum powers through the middle as he leads the counter-attack over the halfway line. The Netherlands captain offloads to De Roon, who immediately looks to return the favour to his team-mate near the penalty spot. Wijnaldum does bring the pass down but his touch is heavy and the chance to test Loria fades away.
61' All three of Georgia’s wins have come away from home. Their last home victory came against Gibraltar way back in 2019. Despite their away record being stronger, it is hard to see a way back for Sagnol's men here.
59' CHANCE! The home side go short from a corner on the right-hand side before De Jong curls a cross from deep towards the far post. De Vrij and Ake wait to test Loria and it is the former who finds himself unmarked inside the area. Despite being unchallenged, De Vrij fails to redirect his header into the back of the net as the centre-back makes a poor connection to send his effort over the crossbar from close range.
58' CLOSE! Depay squares up Kakabadze before floating a cross towards the far post. Dumfries chests down, cutting in on his left foot and volleying towards the bottom right corner. Loria remains motionless but gratefully watches the right wing-back's strike go just wide of goal to the right.
57' Aburjania pushes through the back of Dumfries on the halfway line and they both end up on the ground. Despite Aburjania's best protests, the referee awards a free-kick to the home side before Dumfries gets back to his feet and looks fine to carry on.
54' Weghorst goes down on the right flank and wins a free-kick for the hosts. Depay delivers the set-piece from the wide position but Kashia heads away at the near post before Weghorst's follow-up chance gets blocked from the left of goal.
53' SAVE! Davitashvili ventures forward and ignores the run of Aburjania on the right to instead unleashes his own right-footed strike from 25 yards out. The substitute's attempt dips and swerves from distance, however, Stekelenburg manages to save and keep hold of the ball without feeling the need to parry away.
51' Courtesy of De Roon's foul on Kiteishvili, the Georgian medical team are again required to come on and tend to one of their players. After a quick spray and some discussion with the physios, Kiteishvili returns to the pitch and looks fine to carry on.
50' Wijnaldum intercepts high up the pitch, however, De Roon fails to capitalise as his heavy touch causes too many problems for his team-mate De Jong. De Roon tries to make up for his mistake but instead hacks through the back of Kiteishvili to concede a free-kick near the halfway line.
48' A corner on the right-hand side comes for Georgia and Kiteishvili delivers towards the penalty spot. Despite Kashia and Khocholava's best efforts, the home side manage to head clear with relative ease.
47' As expected, Ake has slotted into the left centre-back role in De Boer's three-man defence. With the Dutch centre-back having barely played for Manchester City this season, could this be one final opportunity to make his way into the head coach's thoughts for his first starting line-up against Ukraine next week?
46' Referee Lambrechts gets the second half underway!
Looking ahead to the next 45, De Boer may make some changes to either rest some of his key players or give an opportunity to some of his squad who are on the fringes of the starting line-up. Sagnol will be pleased with his men's first-half performance but will be asking them to be more clinical when the chances do present themselves.
Netherlands started brightly and their intricate passing was rewarded with a penalty in the ninth minute, courtesy of Dvali's foul on Dumfries. Depay duly converted from the spot to open the scoring, however, De Boer's men will be left frustrated they have not extended their lead, despite having numerous opportunites to do so. Down the other end, Lobzhanidze has had the best chances for Georgia but has yet to beat Stekelenburg, which is why the hosts go in 1-0 up at half-time.
45' + 2' HALF-TIME: NETHERLANDS 1-0 GEORGIA
45' Sagnol's men enjoy a decent spell of possession, knocking the ball from one flank to the other as they look to play through the hosts' resolute defence. Their progress, however, comes to an end as a long pass finds Stekelenburg.
43' SAVE! Depay feeds into the middle towards De Jong, who powers forward before unleashing a right-footed strike from 25 yards towards the top left corner. The Barcelona midfielder's effort looks destined for the back of the net before Loria produces a remarkable save to tip the shot over the crossbar and out for a corner.
42' De Jong wanders towards the left flank, taking his time to get his head up and curl a cross towards the near post. Weghorst is the target, however, the ball sails over his head and into the hands of Loria in the away side's goal.
40' With just over five minutes left until the half-time whistle, De Boer will want another goal from his side to keep Georgia at bay. While the visitors haven't dominated, they have had their chances in the first half, courtesy of the two Lobzhanidze chances against Stekelenburg.
38' SAVE! Netherlands' initial corner from the right-hand side gets hooked away by a fairly straightforward Loria save after Dumfries' header. Weghorst manages to recycle the ball, cutting in from the left-hand channel and setting his sights on the far corner with a curling right-footed strike. Loria once again gets across to parry away a save and keeps the hosts' advantage at just one goal.
36' Depay offloads Dumfries, who sees his right-footed strike deflected behind for a corner on the right-hand side, which Depay will take for the hosts.
35' CLOSE! Kiteishvili swings in a free-kick from the left-hand side and finds the head of Kashia, who redirects his attempt just wide of Stekelenburg's goal to the left. A late offside flags goes up against the centre-back but replays show Kashia may have been offside if VAR had got involved.
34' Depay and Weghorst both make runs over the top, however, De Roon's attempted pass through the Georgian defence is poor and the opposition intercept. Down the other end, Kiteishvili wins a free-kick for his side in the left-hand channel.
32' WIDE! Kiteishvili ghosts in behind Dumfries, reaching the byline on the left before pulling back towards the penalty spot with a right-footed offload. Gvilia makes a late run into the area but, despite being unmarked, scuffs a right-footed strike wide of goal to the right. That was a great chance for Georgia and Gvilia rightfully has his head in his hands as he realises what an opportunity he has passed up!
30' Kiteishvili smartly touches the ball around De Roon before De Vrij covers his team-mate and hooks a clearance away. While a goal down, Sagnol's men are well in this game and look a threat when they do get the chance to go forward.
29' This is De Boer’s 11th game in charge of Netherlands, with the former Crystal Palace boss having won just four of his first ten games so far, after initially starting his reign with a 1-0 defeat to Mexico.
27' Each time De Boer's men have possession, they are looking for the inwards runs from Wijndal and Dumfries. The visitors don't seem able to cope with the wing-backs' pace but, on this occasion, De Roon's pass for Wijndal travels out for a goal-kick.
26' Lobzhanidze races in from the right-hand channel, beating Wijndal and he then attempts to find Zivzivadze. The Georgian forward receives the pass and tries to spin and shoot, however, Blind and De Vrij combine to block in front of Stekelenburg's goal.
24' Giorbelidze gets hacked down by Weghorst and the away side get a free-kick just inside the left flank. Kiteishvili delivers but the hosts manage to head away multiple clearances to avert the danger.
22' BLOCK! Lobzhanidze beats the offside trap to latch onto a Aburjania throughball before skipping around the incoming Stekelenburg just outside the area. The Georgian has just De Vrij to beat to tap-in to an empty net, however, the centre-back produces a last-ditch tackle to stop what looked like a definite goal for the visitors.
21' De Jong puts his hands to his mouth after he is adjudged to have fouled Khocholava. The Barcelona man appears both annoyed at the decision and the fact he let a good opportunity to attack down the left-hand channel go amiss.
20' De Roon gets slightly fortunate as his heavy touch goes unpunished by Kiteishvili. The Dutch midfielder has looked assured in possession so far, however, sheltering the three-man defence which he is operating in front of, either side of the more attacking De Jong and Wijnaldum.
18' Gvilia smahses through the back of Depay and the referee has no choice but to award a free-kick. Lambrechts has a quick word with Gvilia, perhaps to warn him that another challenge of a similar fashion will result in a yellow card.
16' Netherlands have scored at least two or more goals in each of their last six international matches, last failing to match that tally against Italy.
15' CHANCE! Wijnaldum steers out to Dumfries, who from the right-hand side drills a low cross towards the far post. Depay flies in at the back post but his lunging left-footed strike gets saved by a stretching Loria to keep Netherlands' advantage to just the one goal. The forward, who opened the scoring from the penalty spot, may feel he should be scoring from that sort of range.
14' Aburjania, who scored against Romania last time out and just went down after an aerial duel with De Roon, returns to his feet and makes his way back on moments later. He still seems to be moving rather slowly, therefore Sagnol may keep an eye on his midfielder for the next five minutes or so.
13' De Roon wanders forwards and looks to slip a throughball down the right-hand side for Dumfries. His pass gets intercepted before play gets stopped so that Georgia's physios can give some medical attention to Aburjania, who seems to be struggling after an aerial duel in the middle of the park.
12' Dvali can have no complaints with that penalty decision. In fact, if this was a competitive fixture, the centre-back could have been given his marching orders as he was the last man protecting Loria's goal against Dumfries. Nevertheless, De Boer's men lead in Enschede after 11 minutes.
9' PENALTY TO NETHERLANDS! Intricate play from the hosts sees Depay find space outside the Georgia area. He helps a pass into the box for Dumfries, who goes down under the pressure of Dvali just as the right wing-back was about to pull the trigger. Referee Lambrechts doesn't hesitate as he points towards the spot and awards the penalty!
8' Kashia is far too enthusiastic as he powers out of defence and clatters through the back of Depay. Dumfries then goes down in the right-hand channel but referee Lambrechts instead awards a goal-kick to the away side.
6' Dumfries speeds inwards as he looks to latch onto a long pass over the top, however, Loria is quick off his line to intervene in front of the right wing-back.
5' Depay dances one way and then the other but has to play backwards as the hosts opt to retain possession and remain patient in their attempts to pass through Georgia's deep defensive block.
3' SAVE! Lobzhanidze ghosts down the right flank and his run is found by Kiteishvili's throughball. The Georgian forward races towards the area before his right-footed attempt is saved by Stekelenburg, who dives to his right to keep the scores level after three minutes. The first chance goes to the visitors and they look to be a threat with their pace on the counter-attack.
2' Wijnaldum drives forward down the right-hand side in the opening stages but his progress comes to an end at the hands of Giorbelidze.
1' Referee Erik Lambrechts gets this friendly underway!
This will be the first time Netherlands and Georgia face each other, which is quite surprising given the two are both from Europe.
Sagnol makes nine changes in total from the morale-boosting win against Romania. After scoring in the 2-1 win, Aburjania keeps his place in the side, while Khocholava is the other Georgian to stay in the starting line-up. Barring that pair, Sagnol names a changed line-up for the trip to Enschede.
Frank de Boer opts for two changes from the Scotland game. Krul drops to the bench and Stekelenburg replaces him in goal. The other change sees Matthijs de Ligt miss out entirely and Blind is the man to partner De Vrij and Timber in the three-man defence.
SUBS: Irakli Azarovi, Tornike Okriashvili, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Georges Mikautadze, Murtaz Daushvili, Sergo Kukhianidze, Zuriko Davitashvili, Giorgi Beridze, Nika Kvekveskiri, Grigol Chabradze, Jambul Jigauri, Lazare Kupatadze.
GEORGIA (4-2-3-1): Giorgi Loria; Otar Kakabadze, Guram Kashia, Lasha Dvali, Guram Giorbelidze; Davit Khocholava, Valeriane Gvilia; Giorgi Aburjania, Otar Kiteishvili, Saba Lobzhanidze; Budu Zivzivadze.
SUBS: Davy Klaassen, Tim Krul, Patrick van Aanholt, Luuk de Jong, Ryan Gravenberch, Joel Veltman, Teun Koopmeiners, Marco Bizot, Donyell Malen, Steven Berghuis, Nathan Ake, Quincy Promes.
NETHERLANDS (3-5-2): Maarten Stekelenburg; Daley Blind, Stefan de Vrij, Jurrien Timber; Owen Wijndal, Frenkie de Jong, Georginio Wijnaldum, Marten de Roon, Denzel Dumfries; Memphis Depay, Wout Weghorst.
Georgia make the trip to De Grolsch Veste in Enschede off the back of a confidence-boosting 2-1 away victory over Romania. The visitors failed to qualify for the European Championships this summer, courtesy of a 1-0 defeat to North Macedonia in the final of the playoffs last November. Buoyed on by a draw against Greece and positive performances against both Sweden and Spain, Willy Sagnol’s team appear to be heading in the right direction in their 2022 World Cup qualifying games.
In an underwhelming performance against Scotland, Memphis Depay scored twice to secure a 2-2 draw with Steve Clarke’s men. After being placed in Group C alongside Ukraine, North Macedonia and Austria, the hosts will fancy their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the European Championships. First, however, Oranje face Georgia in their last friendly before their campaign starts against Ukraine next Sunday.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the international friendly between Netherlands and Georgia.
