Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Netherlands

While both teams will only have pride to play for in the UEFA Nations League group stage match on Tuesday evening in Zenica, the Netherlands will square off against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the last match in League A Group this year.

Ronald Koeman’s men walloped Hungary 4-0 on Saturday to wrap up second place, while their hosts suffered their biggest-ever loss, in a humiliating 7-0 drubbing to Germany.

For the third time in successive attempts the Netherlands will be in the knockouts and will attempt to climb a rung higher than their second placed finish in the last Nations League campaign in addition to qualifying higher than their embarrassing fourth place in the recent Netherlands-hosted tournament.

Koeman’s men booked a place in the quarter-finals by thrashing Hungary 4-0 on saturday evening with Wout Weghorst and Cody Gakpo scoring penalties in the first half, Denzel Dumfries in the second half joined by Teun Koopmeiners.

The result at Amsterdam Arenal almost appeared pedestrian after a disturbing health crisis that befell Hungarian senior team coach at the break, but the medical team was quick to attend to him and former Hungary international Szalai has since posted a tweet to indicate that he is okay; admitted in a hospital.

However, there was no inkling of discomfort as far as business on the field was concerned as the Netherlands hammered a second-placed finish in the section behind leaders Germany; in fact, all teams in League A Group 3 have their final tabulations done before the last match.

Besides ensuring that they can no longer be trapped by Hungary, Saturday success halted the Oranje’s three-match run of non-winning in the Nation League, but Koeman boys have not registered any victory in their two away games in the 2024-25 edition of the competition.

But as they take on a wounded and bruised Bosnia-Herzegovina team recovering from their biggest-ever loss in senior men's football, the traveling Dutch supporters shouldn't be too worried about their team's ability to finish League A Group 3 on a high note in Zenica.

The Golden Lilies had never lost by more than five goals prior to Saturday's trip to Freiburg, Germany, but Florian Wirtz (2), Tim Kleindienst (2), Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, and Leroy Sane tore Sergej Barbarez's team to pieces at the Europa-Park Stadion, changing the course of history.

The team's brutal performance ensured what was essentially a pregame formality: Bosnia-Herzegovina will play League B football in the upcoming Nations League cycle, repeating their trend of promotion followed by instant demotion since the first season in 2018–19.

With no fewer than 16 goals conceded in their five games, Bosnia-Herzegovina currently has the worst defensive record in the whole UEFA Nations League. They have also lost 10 of their previous 11 games and drawn the other, resulting in a genuinely dismal run of play.