Rafael van der Vaart makes telling Virgil van Dijk point after Netherlands loss

Former star , while praising , following the Netherlands' 1-0 defeat to Germany in the Nations League.

Ronald Koeman's players were bested in Munich due to Jamie Leweling's second-half goal. The Dutch team had to reshuffle its defence as defender Van Dijk was suspended after being sent off against Hungary on Friday. Van de Ven was moved centrally to fill Van Dijk's void, with Jorrel Hato making his debut at left-back.

Speaking on Dutch television station NOS, Van der Vaart claimed that the Netherlands sorely missed Van Dijk in their loss to Germany. The former Ajax and Real Madrid forward confessed he was "ashamed" of his country's first-half performance against the Germans.

"I don't easily get ashamed of the Dutch team, but today I did," said Van der Vaart. "We attribute so many qualities to them, but it's completely wrong. You can analyse it, but everything just goes wrong.

"Then we have doubts about the absence of Virgil van Dijk, of course you miss him. All well and good, Micky van de Ven, but this is no Van Dijk."

Discussing the Netherlands' performance, Koeman was forthright, stating: "If you go back too far, you bring that on yourself. We came up short on all sides, perhaps in all facets of football. We did things differently at half-time and then we got a bit more rest. But they were much better today.

"I am not satisfied by our performance. The Germans were the better, faster and physically stronger. They created more chances. We lost too many balls in the midfield. We went too far back. That was not the plan. The plan was to put pressure forward on the right side. But it did not happen."