Both sides spent part of the Nations League opener on 24 September behind. Malta turned their game in Andorra round and won 2-1.
Oranje barely had time for a draw. They levelled against Germany in the 92nd minute, 1-1 in Xavi’s first match in charge.
Malta in Encamp
Only 905 turned up at the Estadi de la FAF (Amsterdam, for comparison, drew almost 57 times as many that same night). Andorra went ahead on 17 minutes when Guillaume Lopez followed up after Henry Bonello parried Aron Rodrigo’s shot, and by the 36th Malta were level, Irvin Cardona volleying home a long ball Teddy Teuma had hit from the halfway line.
On 81 minutes the two swapped roles. Cardona provided, Teuma finished, his sixth goal for his country. Three minutes later Ilyas Chouaref of the Swiss club Sion won a penalty and blazed it over himself.
It could have been more. Andorra’s goalkeeper Iker Álvarez made six saves by UEFA’s count, among them stops from Cardona, Alex Satariano and Keyon Ewurum. Emilio De Leo’s side took the points and sit top of League D Group 1, which they share with Andorra and Gibraltar.
Xavi’s debut in Amsterdam
Xavi was appointed on 12 August on a contract running to the 2030 World Cup. It came open once Ronald Koeman decided not to renew his expiring deal after the round-of-32 exit to Morocco at the 2026 World Cup. According to the KNVB, the choice came down to style: possession, initiative, attack. A long-term bet, judging by the length of that contract.
The Dutch side even goes by a colour, and the nickname Oranje needs no crest to be recognised. National colours, crests and matchday gear have long lived beyond the pitch, from souvenirs and video games to football-themed slots at online casinos, where the scoreboard, the ball and the trophy move onto the reels almost unchanged. Spinchester Casino publishes such slots at https://spinchesterslots.bet/, and they are every bit as popular as roulette and live dealer games. That evening 51,437 people came to the Johan Cruijff ArenA, which the KNVB described as full to capacity.
Nerves showed early. Virgil van Dijk had a goal ruled out by VAR on 12 minutes for Brian Brobbey’s interference with goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, and on 30 minutes Germany lost Kai Havertz, substituted after a heavy collision. Two minutes later Felix Nmecha put them ahead, with Brobbey hurt in the same move and replaced on 35 minutes by the debutant Mexx Meerdink.
Ruben van Bommel, another debutant, came on in the 83rd, and in the 92nd Cody Gakpo volleyed in his pass. According to SoccerZZ and 365Scores the hosts had 22 shots to 10, 10 on target to 2, and 54% of the ball. On shots alone the draw looks more like points dropped, though those figures say nothing about the quality of the chances.
What the price says
Serbia away comes next, on 27 September. Sportingbet, as of 25 September, has them at 1.60, the draw at 3.80 and Serbia at 5.00.
Take the inverse of 1.60 and you get 62.5%, but that is the raw probability of one outcome with the margin still inside it. Add all three together and you get 108.8% rather than a hundred, and that 8.8% is the bookmaker’s edge.
After the first round Group A2 reads Greece on three points, Germany and the Netherlands on one each, Serbia on none.
There is no direct bookmaker price on Malta against Gibraltar on 1 October. A summary from the Tips.GG aggregator for 25 September shows 1.24 Malta, 5.06 the draw and 11.90 Gibraltar, attributing the line to FairPari, but those numbers have not been checked with the bookmaker itself.
What comes next
Malta play a friendly against Liechtenstein on 27 September and host Gibraltar on 1 October, both at the National Stadium in Ta’ Qali. In FIFA’s ranking of 20 July the Netherlands are ninth and Malta 161st. An update is due on 7 October.