World European Preliminary-Netherlands VS Finland Preview: The Dutch striker is mediocre, but there are many famous players in the midfield and backcourt.

The Netherlands, the "uncrowned king" of football, is world-famous for its total offense and total defense style of play and has dominated football for nearly a century.

However, today's Netherlands is luxurious in defense but mediocre in offense.

The Netherlands defeated Malta 4:0 in an away game. Four top defenders in the defense, Van de Ven, Van Dijk, Timber, and Dumfries, who are the absolute main players in the five major league giants, started. Ake, De Vrij, and Van Herk were on the bench. De Ligt was not even selected. Midfielders Frenkie de Jong, Reinders, Hrafenbecher, Simmons, Kupmenas and others came on the bench.

On the front line, the top scorer Depay is only 31 years old and can no longer gain a foothold in the five major European leagues. He joined Corinthians of the Brazilian League as a free agent in September 2024 and is currently worth only 9 million euros. The main forward Gakpo is worth 70 million euros. He joined Liverpool in January 2023 and has never played up his worth. After Nunez and Luis Garcia left the team, and Ekitic and Isaac were rotated, he only played as the main left winger in Liverpool this season. Mullen, who is 26 years old like Gakpo, currently plays for Aston Villa, and 33-year-old Verhorst plays for Ajax and is worth only 4 million euros.

These are the current four forwards in the Netherlands. If they were in England, Spain, France or Portugal, they might not be able to enter the national team.

Although the front line is weak, it does not prevent the "Uncrowned King" from dominating the world preliminaries.

Netherlands VS Finland

Nature of the match: Round 8 of Group G of the European Group Stage of the World Cup

Match time: 0:00 on October 13

2026 World Cup Qualifier European Group Stage, the Netherlands will compete with Poland, Finland, Lithuania, and Horseman Turkey is also in Group G. In the pre-match standings, the Netherlands ranked first with 13 points from 5 games, 4 wins, 1 draw, Poland ranked second with 10 points from 5 games, 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, Finland ranked third with 10 points from 6 games, 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, Lithuania ranked fourth with 3 points from 6 games, 3 draws and 3 losses, and Malta was last with 2 points from 6 games, 2 draws, 4 losses.

In 5 games, the Netherlands scored 18 goals and conceded 3. It has strong offensive firepower and the best defense in the group.

Depay, Gakpo, Malen, and Verhorst are a bit dim compared to their predecessors Kluivert, Van Persie, and Robben, but in a relatively easy group, Koeman's team has no problem in abusing the weak.

In this group, Poland is not at its peak, relying on Lewandowski alone to play the leading role, and the 37-year-old Lewandowski is obviously past his prime. Finland has limited strength. Lithuania and Malta are both weak in Europe. In two games against Malta at home and away, the Netherlands scored 12 goals in total. Therefore, most of the data of 18 goals in 5 games came from playing fish belly.

In this round, they will play Finland at home. If the Netherlands wins, there should be no suspense about securing first place in the group and advancing to the 2026 World Cup. Finland will definitely strive to win. If they can defeat the Netherlands in an away game, there is still hope for qualifying. If they lose, fighting for second place in the group and qualifying for the play-offs is enough.

The Netherlands has 5 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss in the past 10 games in all competitions.

Finland has 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses in the past 10 games in all competitions.

The Netherlands is currently ranked 7th in the world by FIFA, with a total team value of 778 million euros. Finland is currently ranked 71st in the world by FIFA, with a total team value of 43.75 million euros.

In the past five encounters between the two sides, the Netherlands has won them all. There should be no doubt that the Netherlands will win this battle.