
The Football Faithful
·7 September 2025
Netherlands XI vs Lithuania – Predicted lineup and team news

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Yahoo sportsThe Football Faithful
·7 September 2025
Lithuania host Netherlands at the Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas on Sunday evening as both nations continue their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns.
The home side recently salvaged a point in dramatic fashion against Malta with a 96th-minute penalty from Gvidas Gineitis, while the Netherlands were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw with Poland in Rotterdam.
The visitors arrive in Kaunas as overwhelming favourites, having demolished Malta 8-0 and beaten Finland 2-0 in their opening two qualifiers, before dropping their first points against Poland.
Memphis Depay provided the assist from a corner against Poland, which proved to be the only goal for the Netherlands in the match.
Frenkie de Jong has dropped out of the squad and returned to Barcelona with a minor injury following the Poland game.
Ronald Koeman, who opted to go with Jan Paul van Hecke in place of the experienced Matthijs de Ligt or Stefan de Vrij, may alter his lineup following Thursday’s lacklustre performance. A subpar performance from Xavi Simons against Poland might see Donyell Malen might get an opportunity to start in the first XI against Lithuania.
Bart Verbruggen started the match against Poland in place of Mark Flekken, suggesting the Brighton goalkeeper has wrestled the starting role away from the new Bayer Leverkusen signing.
Possible Netherlands starting XI: Flekken; Dumfries, Van Dijk, De Vrij, Aké; Reijnders, De Jong, Simons; Gakpo, Weghorst, Depay.
The qualifier will kick off at 5pm BST on Sunday.
The match will be available as a pay-per-view event on Amazon Prime Video in the UK.
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