Matthijs de Ligt will watch from the sidelines as both the Netherlands and Ukraine aim to end miserable runs in their Euro 2020 opener on Sunday.
De Ligt missed the Oranje's final warm-up friendly due to a groin issue and will not recover in time to face Ukraine in Amsterdam.
Coach Frank de Boer said: "The game comes a little too early. We don't want to take any chances. We've got two more group games.
"If it had been very important, he could have played. He's very close to it."
It is a blow to a Netherlands side who have not won at the European Championship since the 2008 group stage.
The Dutch were quickly beaten in the knockout phase of that competition, lost all three matches at Euro 2012 and then failed to qualify four years later.
Centre-back is suddenly a potential area of weakness, with Virgil van Dijk missing the tournament, while De Boer only confirmed the identity of his starting goalkeeper – 38-year-old Maarten Stekelenburg – on Saturday.
Regular number one Jasper Cillessen, cut from the squad following a positive coronavirus test, was the only ever-present in qualifying besides De Ligt.
Ukraine might make for accommodating opponents for Stekelenburg, though, having themselves lost five in a row at the Euros and failed to score in each defeat.
Andrey Shevchenko, now their coach, is the only player to have ever scored for Ukraine at the finals, as they have failed with 67 shots since his 2012 brace against Sweden.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Netherlands – Memphis Depay
Even with De Boer switching to an unpopular 5-3-2 formation, Depay will be the chief threat in attack. Although Georginio Wijnaldum (eight) outscored his team-mate in qualifying, Depay was involved in a goal every 38 minutes (six goals and seven assists in 495 minutes) – the best rate of any player involved in five or more.
Ukraine – Andriy Pyatov
If Depay is as involved as the Netherlands hope, that will mean another busy outing for Pyatov. The Ukraine goalkeeper saved 88.6 per cent of the shots he faced in qualifying (31 of 35), which was the best rate of any keeper to appear in six or more games.
KEY OPTA FACTS
– This is the first meeting between the Netherlands and Ukraine at a major tournament (World Cup or European Championship). The Dutch are unbeaten in their two friendly encounters – winning 3-0 in Rotterdam in May 2008 and drawing 1-1 in Donetsk in August 2010.
– The Netherlands are playing their first major tournament game at the Johan Cruyff Arena since the Euro 2000 semi-final against Italy, a game in which the Dutch failed to score despite having 31 shots and 71 per cent possession (0-0 after extra time, 1-3 on penalties).
– Since and including 1988, only Germany (six) have reached the semi-finals of the European Championship more often than the Netherlands (four). However, the Netherlands have not made the final four since 2004 and they have not won a game in the tournament since 2008.
– After winning their first game at the European Championship (2-1 v Sweden, 11 June 2012), Ukraine have subsequently lost their past five. In fact, only Yugoslavia have had a longer losing run in the history of the tournament (six in a row, from Euro 1968 to Euro 1984).
UK and Ireland bid for Euro 2028 to be unopposed after Turkey withdraw interest
The UK and Ireland will host Euro 2028, subject to final approval from UEFA’s executive committee next week, after Turkey withdrew its interest.
The five-nation bid is now the only option on the table for the finals in five years’ time after Turkey pulled out of contention for the 2028 finals to focus on a joint bid with Italy for Euro 2032.
UEFA will formally announce the hosts for the two tournaments following a meeting of its executive committee in Switzerland next week.
Paul Warne feels win at Blackpool was best display of his Derby tenure
Paul Warne hailed a 3-1 victory at Blackpool as the best display of his year-long Derby tenure as Korey Smith, James Collins and Martyn Waghorn netted for the visitors.
The Rams have now won four of their five away games so far in League One, with only one victory coming at home.
“It’s the proudest I’ve been and probably the best performance since I’ve been here,” Warne said.
“I think away from home I would like 11 speedsters, that’s what I would like in my team. We don’t have 11 speedsters, we have two or three.
“So sometimes away from home you can play counter-attack, you don’t have to have the ball as much, but you have to be deadly when you have it and we have been.
“Our away form has been good. I think we’ve been pretty good at home but we just haven’t taken our chances but tonight we took harder chances than we’ve been creating at home and we’ve missed.”
After a goalless first half, Smith netted in the 54th minute to move Derby ahead, firing Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s cutback into the top of the net.
Collins put the Rams further in front on 71 minutes only for Blackpool to hit straight back as Kenny Dougall headed home.
The Seasiders were inches away from an equaliser when the in-form Jordan Rhodes headed against the bar from 10 yards out.
Substitute Tom Barkhuizen restored Derby’s momentum, first seeing an attempt cleared off the line before teeing up Waghorn for a simple finish to ensure the victory.
Blackpool manager Neil Critchley said: “I’m disappointed about the result but not too downbeat.
“I thought it was a really good game, two good teams on the pitch. Derby changed their system, gave us an enormous amount of respect in the way they set up and produced the perfect away performance by defending in numbers and playing us on the break. And they produced moments of real quality.
“We played some really good football, I enjoyed our performance in the second half. Goals change games, we started the second half well but they scored.
“We hit the crossbar at 2-1. If that goes in the game is different.
“They scored when we were on top in the second half. We could have defended that better, but our players have shown spirit.
“We’ll play worse than that and win this season.”
Jude Bellingham helps Real Madrid to victory and Bayern Munich hit back to win
Jude Bellingham’s dream start to life at Real Madrid continued as his mesmerising solo goal helped the Spanish giants down Napoli to make it two wins from two in this season’s Champions League.
Having grabbed a last-gasp winner to see off Union Berlin a fortnight ago, Bellingham first teed up Vinicius Junior to score after Leo Ostigard had put Napoli ahead at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Bellingham then stole the show as he collected the ball on halfway, drove forward into the area and bulldozed his way through Ostigard before tucking into the corner and although a contentiously-awarded penalty scored by Piotr Zielinski pegged Real back, the visitors won 3-2 following Alex Meret’s own goal.
Victory sent Real top of Group C, where Union Berlin went down to another stoppage-time goal as Andre Castro sealed a 3-2 triumph for Braga, who hit back from 2-0 down to win in the German capital.
Sheraldo Becker’s brace put the hosts in charge but Sikou Niakate and Armindo Bruma drew the Portuguese side level before Castro struck in the fourth minute of time added on to break Union hearts.
Bayern Munich avoided a banana skin after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Copenhagen, with Jamal Musiala and substitute Mathys Tel cancelling out Lukas Lerager’s goal.
The Bundesliga side top Group A, where Manchester United’s stuttering start to the campaign continued after an error-strewn defeat at home to Galatasaray.
Rasmus Hojlund scored a superb second after his opener was cancelled out by Galatasaray’s grinning former United forward Wilfried Zaha, only for Ten Hag’s men to spectacularly unravel.
Kerem Akturkoglu equalised and summer signing Andre Onana’s atrocious pass out straight to Dries Mertens led to a poor Casemiro recovery challenge that saw the Brazil midfielder sent off and a penalty awarded.
The goalkeeper was relieved to see Mauro Icardi strike the spot-kick wide, but he swiftly made amends as United fell to a third Old Trafford loss of the campaign.
It was a forgettable night for Premier League teams as Arsenal lost 2-1 at Lens in Group B. Gabriel Jesus put the Gunners ahead but Adrien Thomasson and Elye Wahi gave Lens all three points.
Jordan Teze’s stoppage-time goal lifted PSV Eindhoven to a 2-2 draw at home to Sevilla, who twice went ahead through Nemanja Gudelj and Youssef En-Nesyri only to be pegged back.
Luuk de Jong’s penalty looked to be vain until Teze popped up in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Marcus Thuram gave Inter Milan a 1-0 Group D victory over Benfica, while Mikel Oyarzabal and Brais Mendez ushered Real Sociedad to a 2-0 win at Red Bull Salzburg.
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