Johan Cruyff speaks:
“This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style, yes it served the Dutch to unsettle Spain. If with this they got satisfaction, fine, but they ended up losing. They were playing anti-football.”
Rinus Michels probably weeps in his grave.
Meanwhile, Howard Webb comes under fire but lets give him a break shall we?
This was not an easy final to officiate with the Dutch doing everything to intimidate Spain. Van Bommel and De Jong survived- otherwise the Dutch could have been down to nine men for most part of the match. Arjen Robben’s grouse that Carles Puyol was holding him back was legitimate but Webb applied the advantage rule.