🇪🇺 NL: Netherlands thrash Belgium! France shocked and debut Rangnick win | OneFootball

Friday night saw the summer round of Nations League fixtures kick off with seven fixtures across Europe.

This is what went down.

Belgium battered by Netherlands

Scorers: Batshuatyi 90+3′; Bergwijn 40′, Memphis 51′, 65′ Dumfries 61′

The Netherlands started their Nations League campaign with a stunning dismantling of Belgium on the road.

Timothy Castagne came close to giving Belgium an early lead from a rebound, only to see his effort hit the crossbar, while Steven Berghuis almost found the breakthrough moments later at the other end – only to be denied by Simon Mignolet.

Memphis and Daley Blind both missed by inches before the Netherlands got their opener five minutes before half-time when Steven Bergwijn turned and spun from the edge of the area before blasting into the bottom corner.

They then had a penalty awarded and taken away after a VAR intervention but it wasn’t long before they added a second via Memphis’ 40th goal for his country, firing into the far corner after a slack pass from Dedryck Boyata gifted them possession on the halfway line.

A third followed just after the hour mark via Denzel Dumfries who was in the right place to find the net at the back post after Thibaut Courtois’ save wasn’t turned away from the danger area before Memphis added a fourth within minutes.

The Red Devils did get the last word in with an injury-time consolation through Michy Batshuayi.

Cornelius double sinks France

Scorers: Benzema 51′, Cornelius 68′, 88′

Despite a delightful goal from Karim Benzema, defending champions France fell to a late double from Andreas Cornelius in their opener in Paris.

A fantastic piece of interplay between Kylian Mbappé and Benzema came close to giving Les Bleus the early lead, only for the Real man’s cool finish to be ruled out for a narrow offside.

Mbappé exited at half-time with the stalemate intact after suffering from discomfort in his knee and in his absence, Benzema quickly assumed responsibility with a fantastic goal for the opener, weaving his way beyond two challenges with deft footwork inside the area before sliding home.

That was his 50th goal of the season between club and country but wasn’t enough for his side when Andreas Cornelius rescued a comeback draw for the Danes when he delightfully steered a cross from the left back across goal for the equaliser.

And with just over 60 seconds remaining, he then won it when he beat a disjointed French offside trap to race through and lash high into the net for the victory.

Debut delight for Rangnick

Scorers: Arnautović 41′, Gregoritsch 54′, Sabitzer 57′

Ralf Rangnick got his tenure as Austria boss off to the perfect start with a ruthless demolition of Croatia away from home in his first game in charge.

The opener came for the visitors shortly before the interval through Marko Arnautović, who benefited from a generous lack of Croatian closing down to pick out the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty box with a fine finish.

Two goals in quick succession shortly after the restart put the result beyond doubt as first Michael Gregoritsch steered in Marcel Sabitzer’s low cross from the left before the Bayern Munich man completed the rout by drilling in low from 30 yards for a dream debut for the new man in charge.

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