Dutch national football returns with first match in 290 days

The second edition of the Nations League kicked off on Thursday, and the Dutch national team will be playing their first match in 290 days against Poland on Friday. The match stats at 8:45 p.m. in the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.

Oranje's previous match was on November 19th, against Estonia, also in Amsterdam.

This will also be Oranje's first match with Dwight Lodeweges as coach, after Ronald Koeman left to coach at FC Barcelona. On Thursday, Lodeweges told NU.nl that he is confidently looking forward to the match against Poland, and that he may be playing some new blood.

With Perr Schuurs from Ajax, Owen Wijndal form AZ, and Mohamed Ihattaren from PSV, the Oranje selection has three new guys. And due to a number of absent players - Mattijhs de Ligt, Daley Blind, and Stefan de Vrij are all injured, and Denzel Dumfries will soon be a new father - there is definitely room to play the new blood.

"Of course I would dare to let them make their debut, otherwise I would not select them. It is great that they have the opportunity to experience such a week, but I am not afraid to use them," the interim coach said. "They've made a great impression. We trained to play 'between the lines' and Ihattaren has a feeling for that. Schuurs experiences these days in a wonderful way. He is very open and picks up as much as possible. Wijndal was a bit shy in the beginning, but he is now coming up to temperature. It is going very well."