Netherlands vs Chile: Wesley Sneijder blasts Chile criticisms as 'disrespectful' after Jorge Sampaoli claims Dutch were overly defensive

Snijder and team-mate Dirk Kuyt claim negative comments are a compliment of a successful defence

(GETTY IMAGES)

The Dutch players have hit back at the claims of Chile manager Jorge Sampaoli that they were overly defensive in yesterday’s 2-0 win, with Wesley Sneijder claiming that comments were disrespectful.

Sneijder said it was Chile’s job to create something but they had failed, in the 2-0 defeat. “It’s a little bit disrespectful if he says we didn’t want to play football and we didn’t do anything today because we were the ones who won 2-0,” he said.

“If [Sampaoli] saw us in the two games before, we didn’t play that differently today to those two games. We know that we are very strong and can play compact, and we know that up front with our attackers we are very strong, so it was up to Chile to create something against it. And they couldn’t create anything today, so that’s a compliment for our team.”

Dirk Kuyt, who reached his 99 cap against Chile in Arena Sao Paulo, declared: “You can say what you want, but a team who scores ten goals in three games with an average of 3.3 goals is not really a defensive team. Chile wanted to attack us, but they didn’t create many chances and in football the most important thing is who creates the most chances and who scores the most goals, and that’s what we did today.

"That’s what our quality is, and everyone knows how dangerous the Dutch team is up front. We believe in the way we’re playing, and we believe in our players. We believe in the coach. I think he’s a quality coach and every time he tells us how to play, it works.”

Dutch manager Louis van Gaal has said winning the World Cup is out of his control, citing the two penalties which he remains deeply aggrieved about as evidence that officialdom can ruin things.

“You see [winning the World Cup] depends on so many different factors,” he said. “The team and coach don’t always control these elements. First two matches we were faced with two unfair penalties – and that could have caused disqualification.”