Stadio San Paolo, Napoli, 14.06.1980
Netherlands

3-2 (1-0)
K. Allofs 20., 60., 66. / Rep pen 79., W. van de Kerkhof 85.

With two points safely in the locker after their win over reigning champions Czechoslovakia, the Mannschaft’s next game would be against a team as open and fluid as the Czechs had been resilient and dour – their old rivals from the Netherlands.

Having started with a rather defensive 4-4-2 against the Czechs, Nationaltrainer Jupp Derwall plumped for a far more attacking 4-3-3 against the Oranje. The versatile Uli Stielike was shifted back into the four-man defence in place of Bernhard Cullmann, while defender Bernd Förster would make way for the mercurial young midfield playmaker Bernd Schuster who teamed up alongside the talented Hansi Müller and the solid Hans-Peter Briegel. Up front, the burly Hamburger SV forward Horst Hrubesch joined Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Klaus Allofs in what would be a formidable three-pronged attack.

Jan Zwartkruis’ Dutch side had kicked off their campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over tournament debutants Greece, and like the Germans knew that a victory in their second match would leave them needing only a point to secure a place in the final; it was the perfect platform for what would prove to be the most exciting game in what had so far been a fairly ordinary tournament.

While all of the other matches not involving the hosts had seen paltry crowds with grounds being half empty, this match-up between the 1974 World Cup finalists was always going to be one of the more popular games as 26,546 people made their way to Napoli’s rather grim-looking Stadio San Paolo. On what was a dry and warm afternoon in southern Italy French referee Robert Wurtz would get things under way, with the Mannschaft in their familiar Schwarz und Weiß and the Oranje in their, erm, Oranje.

Jupp Derwall’s side immediately looked to take the early initiative, and it would take only two minutes for Bernd Schuster to show what the team had been missing in the opening game with some great skill on the ball and a shot from distance that just flew over the Dutch crossbar.

The man in the thick of the early action however was Horst Hrubesch, who was able to get a good sight of goal on four occasions in a fifteen minute spell of dominance by the Mannschaft. With five minutes on the clock the big Hamburg striker was just unable to meet a teasing right-wing cross from Manni Kaltz, on ten minutes from another Kaltz cross he sent the ball wide when he should perhaps have hit the target, two minutes after that he forced Dutch ‘keeper Piet Schrijvers into a good smothering save at the edge of the six-yard box, and on the quarter of an hour mark he was unable to connect with the ball after some great skill down the right flank by the fleet-footed Schuster.

As well as creating chances the Germans would keep the ball brilliantly, with the Dutch were struggling to even get a look in. Even when the men in orange did manage to get hold of the ball, they would find themselves being closed down quickly by someone in a white shirt.

Having completely dominated the game for the opening twenty minutes Germany finally – and deservedly – would take the lead. After skipper Bernard Dietz had picked the ball up on the left just inside the Dutch half he charged inside towards the box, finding Schuster who skillfully turned his marker and unleashed a right-footed thunderbolt that crashed against the inside of the right post with Dutch ‘keeper Piet Schrijvers beaten. The ball would fall to another rising young star in Fortuna Düsseldorf’s twenty-three year old Klaus Allofs, who had little more to do than stroke the ball calmly into the empty net.

Felix Magath and Karl-Heinz Förster challenge Willy van der Kerkhof in Napoli

Allofs’ opening goal appeared to jolt the hitherto lazy-looking Dutch team into life, and from out of nowhere they launched their first concerted attack on the German goal with René van der Kerkhof forcing a fine save from Schumacher who turned the ball neatly around his right-hand post. This one Dutch chance was however something of a blip, as Jupp Derwall’s side quickly reasserted their dominance. Kaltz continued to be a constant source of danger down the right, Dietz was bossing the left side of the field, and the fast-moving Schuster seemed to be everywhere.

The chances continued to come: Dietz sent a lovely through ball for Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who might well have won a penalty when he appeared to be bundled over in the box, and Rummenigge then sent in a well-placed corner from the left which was headed on target by Hrubesch and scrambled off the line by Schrijvers.

When the half-time whistle blew Jupp Derwall’s side had completely dominated proceedings, with the Dutch unable to cause any trouble in the German box. In fact the closest the men in orange actually came to threatening Toni Schumacher was when Johnny Rep and Huub Stevens suddenly decided to get involved in a heated exchange of words with the German ‘keeper in the last few minutes before the break.

The Dutch would begin the second half far more brightly than they had ended the first, with René van der Kerkhof warming Schumacher’s gloves with a firm shot from the edge of the box before embarking on an excellent run down the left flank that culminated in his falling under Uli Stielike’s challenge at the edge of the box. The French referee rather bizarrely awarded the Oranje a free-kick inside the German box, but they would be unable to make the early pressure count. It had been René van der Kerkhof who had been the man of the opening ten minutes that had seen the Dutch have their best spell of the match, and speedy left winger continued to attract attention as Schuster was booked for a clumsy challenge.

Having withstood the early pressure from the opposition the Mannschaft crafted their first opening of the second half with just over fifty-five minutes on the clock, as Schuster’s clipped cross into the box almost found the head of Horst Hrubesch. This signalled yet another change in momentum, as just moments later the Germans swept up the length of the field at pace with Rummenigge unable to find Hansi Müller with his cutback after a fine run down the left flank.

The pace and movement of the German side had provided a constant worry for the Dutch defence for most of the match, and with an hour gone Schuster robbed his opponent of the ball before turning and charging back into the opposition half. The blond playmaker found Müller out to his right with a perfectly-timed ball, and without breaking stride the VfB Stuttgart man would make his way into the Dutch penalty area and rolled the ball back with the outside of his left foot. There to meet it was Allofs, who cracked a low left-foot shot that skidded past the diving Schrijvers and in off the post to score his and Germany’s second.

Five minutes after his side had extended their lead Derwall would send on Felix Magath for Müller, and the Hamburger SV midfielder was almost immediately into the action as he embarked on a bustling run that almost found Rummenigge in space down the right. With what was a comfortable two-goal lead one might have expected the Mannschaft to shut up shop, but they continued to press forward and harass the Dutch defence.

Moments after Rummenigge had put his shot wide Manny Kaltz sent in a smart lob into the box for Briegel who was just about beaten to the punch by Schrijvers, but with the Dutch unable to get the ball out of their own penalty area it was seized upon by the almost ubiquitous Schuster. Charging at pace down the right towards the byline, the twenty year-old 1. FC Köln starlet skinned and rounded his marker before playing an almost impossibly tight reverse pass to Allofs who gratefully dinked the ball home with his right foot to complete a superb hat-trick. At 3-0, the game looked to be over.

With seventeen minutes left and the Mannschaft seemingly home and dry skipper Bernard Dietz was replaced by the nineteen year-old Borussia Mönchengladbach prodigy Lothar Matthäus, who within minutes of coming onto the pitch was testing the increasingly nervous Schrijvers with a well-struck shot from some twenty yards. It would be an interesting introduction to international football for the teenager: less than five minutes after his attempt on goal, he found himself at the other end of the field making a clumsily desperate lunge at Dutch wingback Bennie Wijnstekers – who threw himself into the box with a spectacularly theatrical flourish.

The foul – if indeed there had been a foul – had clearly taken place outside the area, but the French official just waved away the German protests. It was at least the third time that a Dutch player had flung himself into the penalty area, and on this occasion the tactic succeeded in hoodwinking Monsieur Wurtz who immediately pointed to the spot. It appeared that there could be no game between Germany and the Netherlands without there being some sort of controversy, usually in the form of a suspect Dutch spot-kick. Johnny Rep’s well-placed shot just about beat Toni Schumacher who dived the right way, and the Dutch were on the scoresheet.

With five minutes remaining Willy van de Kerkhof blasted a twenty-yard piledriver past the unsighted Schumacher to pull another goal back, but Derwall’s side would manage to hold firm for the remainder of the match and with it place one foot firmly in the final. At 3-2 the result had been highly flattering to the Dutch, who had been both out-thought and outplayed by a positive German side that could very easily have scored more than their three goals.

With two wins from their opening two games, the Mannschaft would only need a point from their last group phase game against outsiders Greece to secure their place in their third successive European Championship final.

Germany: Schumacher – Kaltz, Stielike, Kh. Förster, Dietz (c) (73. Matthäus) – B. Schuster, Briegel, Ha. Müller (65. Magath) – Kh. Rummenigge, Hrubesch, K. Allofs

Netherlands: Schrijvers – Wijnstekers, Krol (c), van de Korput, Hovenkamp (46. Nanninga) – W. van de Kerkhof, Haan, Stevens – Rep, Kist (69. Thijssen), R. van de Kerkhof

Referee: Robert Wurtz (France)
Assistants: not known

Yellow Cards: Schuster / Stevens
Red Cards: – / –

Attendance: 26,546

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