Van Gaal criticizes Netherlands players for playing ‘badly’

Netherlands were denied a victory by

’s fantastic performance in the 1-1 draw on Friday and the Dutch manager van Gaal was less than pleased with his team’s performance, despite

now in position to finish first of their group.

Cody Gakpo shone again as the PSV star put them 1-0 up against Ecuador but it was Ecuador’s captain Enner Valencia who equalized on a rebound. The goal puts Valencia on top of the World Cup top goalscorers list, also making him Ecuador’s sole goalscorer in their last 6 goals at the World Cup.

The former United and Bayern Munich boss spoke to NOS after the match, saying: “

We played badly again in possession. The team really wants to. You just have to have the quality to show that. We lost every game and gave the ball to the wrong colour very often. It's still amazing how we played this game."

Netherlands now head to their last game of the group stage against host nation

, who became the earliest host nation to be eliminated after Netherlands. and Ecuador’s 1-1 draw made it impossible for them to move past the group stage.

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