The last match of Stefanie van der Gragt’s career turned out to be very eventful.
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One of the characters of the first quarter-final of the World Cup was a Dutch defender Stefanie van der Gragt.
Match referee Stephanie Frappart interpreted that van der Gragt committed a hand foul in the 80th minute of the game and caused a penalty kick. Marion Caldentey didn’t make a mistake but put Spain in the lead.
However, van der Gragt managed to level the game in extra time of the match. For the 30-year-old topper, the Spain quarter-final was particularly meaningful, as the bet was van den der Gragt’s possibly last international match.
In the end, the game was the last for the topper, when Spain Salma Parallel life scored the winning goal in the follow-up match in the 111th minute.
Dutch captain van der Gragt has played a big role in the country’s football success, the 2017 European Championship gold and the 2019 World Cup silver teams.
However, the end of his career did not cross his mind against Spain. According to the Dutch NOS, Van der Gragt stated that he will probably only realize it later.
– I have always enjoyed being with the national team. I always smiled when I joined the national team. We’ve grown a lot as a team since 2017. We’ve got the fans behind us and achieved great things in the World Cup, van der Gragt said.
Holland’s head coach said after the dramatic match that he greatly appreciates Holland’s captain.
– Defenders like him are disappearing from modern football. It’s about attitude and a strong will to win. It’s all about physicality and hard work. Every tackle is a tackle, Andries Jonker described.
– He is not the best player in the world, but maybe the best defender.
After that, Jonker proposed a respectful gesture to the Dutch, who played 107 international matches.
– One way or another, he deserves a statue, Jonker threw.
After the match, the situation in the second half also spoke, when the referee Frappart first gave a penalty kick to Holland. Irene Paredes seemed to nudge by Lineth Beerenstein to the surface of the grass. However, the VAR video referee turned Frappart’s head.
– VAR didn’t do its job properly, but Spain deserved the win. However, that penalty kick situation went wrong, Jonker said.
Jonker was not at all upset about the loss. The coach felt that Holland had moved on from last year’s European Championships. At that time, the Netherlands missed the quarter-finals after successful tournaments. This year, Holland was also plagued by several injuries to key players.
– This loss is hard to swallow, but we are back on the map, Jonker stated.
Sources: AFP, Reuters