Frenkie de Jong: Ecuador draw is a ‘good wake-up call’ for the Netherlands

Frenkie de Jong spoke out about his Netherlands team’s World Cup chances after the Dutch side were held to a 1-1 draw on Friday by Ecuador.

The Dutch side took an early lead through Cody Gakpo but were denied all three points when Enner Valencia equalized.

Louis van Gaal’s side are still in good shape to qualify but De Jong knows they need to improve a lot if they are to go far in the tournament.

“Of the two teams, we have to be the most satisfied with a draw. I think we weren’t good especially on the ball, very sloppy,” he said.

“We don’t really see where the free man is and how to get there. I think we can do that a lot better, we showed that before the World Cup against good opponents.

“We certainly can and I think we certainly will. This is a good wake up call for us as a team. We’re going to work with it and analyze that. We certainly have the quality.”

De Jong also had praise for Ecuador who can also qualify for the knockout stages after taking four points from their first two games.

“The goal remains unchanged, even if you have a setback. Today was a very poor match for us,” he said.

“Well against a good team, because Ecuador is a difficult team – physically very strong, keep going for ninety minutes, fast powerful, also play nice football – so it is not as if we played against a bad team, but above all we can do much better.

“The positive thing is that we still manage to get that draw and that we keep going, but in possession we can improve a lot. We have that quality. We know we can do that, we have to show that now.”

Group A will wrap up on Tuesday with Netherlands taking on Qatar, who have already been eliminated, and Ecuador facing Senegal.