Change of Tactics for Netherlands and Brazil – 3rd Place Match

Brazil and Netherlands will collide in the 3rd place play-off game after both nations were eliminated in the semi finals by Germany and Argentina respectively.
The hosts were absolutely humiliated in front of a jam-packed crown conceding no less than 5 goals in first half an hour, 7 in total to be ousted in the worst possible fashion.
Their defense has always been a weakness and it showed big time in the absence of captain Thiago Silva.
Moreover, Brazil’s tendency to go all out attack did not help either, especially after conceding as Germans played on the counter and manipulated everything.
Hence, expect Brazil to change their tactics and focus more on defense to help redeem some pride and end the tournament with a win for supporters.
On the other hand, Netherlands may change their approach as well. The Dutch were the best attacking side in the group stages as they scored 10 goals, 5 against the World Champions Spain.
However, going into the Knock-out rounds, for some reason Van Gaal focused more on the defensive side.
Although Netherlands did concede only one goal in KO rounds (against Mexico), they could score only 2 goals. They failed to score in the quarter and semi finals as the games were eventually decided on penalties.
Van Gaal may make few changes in the starting XI but expect the Dutch are well aware of Brazil’s defensive fragility and must attack to exploit like the Germans did.
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