The Netherlands snatched a draw against Greece late on Thursday night. Xavi's side trailed 2-0 at the break in Thessaloniki after a dreadful first half, but Virgil van Dijk and substitute Tijjani Reijnders dragged them level at 2-2.
Xavi picked several eye-catching names in his starting XI. Jurriën and Quinten Timber started together for the Netherlands for the first time, while Ruben van Bommel also got the nod and Mexx Meerdink led the line.
From the opening minute, Greece showed exactly where they wanted to hurt the Netherlands. Vangelis Pavlidis got away from the Dutch defence after just 35 seconds and, moments later, Christos Tzolis thought he had opened the scoring, only for his goal to be ruled out because Pavlidis, from an offside position, impeded Bart Verbruggen. The Netherlands had plenty of possession but created hardly any clear-cut chances.
Then, in the 23rd minute, Greece deservedly went in front. A long goal-kick was flicked on and Fotis Ioannidis raced towards the Dutch goal, with Van Dijk playing him onside. Ioannidis kept his cool, had far too much space thanks to Van Dijk and curled the ball beyond Verbruggen into the far corner: 1-0.
After that, the Netherlands kept probing for an opening, but the tempo was too low and the home side remained the greater threat on the break. Verbruggen stopped the deficit growing with a save from Konstantinos Karetsas, but just before half-time it still went wrong. Van Bommel carelessly gave the ball away with a wildly misplaced backward pass, Ioannidis crossed and substitute Giorgios Masouras tapped in for 2-0 in the 47th minute of the first half.
At the break, Xavi made decisive changes and left Van Bommel, Guus Til and Quinten Timber in the dressing room. Noa Lang, Tijjani Reijnders and Ryan Gravenberch came on, and the Netherlands immediately raised the tempo. That brought the goal that halved the deficit in the 59th minute, when Van Dijk headed in Joey Veerman's corner.
Six minutes later, the Netherlands thought they had already drawn level. Dumfries won the ball in the Greek penalty area and found the net, but VAR ruled the goal out for offside. Xavi then also sent on Joshua Zirkzee for Meerdink and watched his side crank up the pressure.
Still the Netherlands kept coming and had another Dumfries goal chalked off for offside in the 73rd minute. Xavi also sent on Joshua Zirkzee and debutant Gjivai Zechiël. Zirkzee went close to the equaliser in the 86th minute, but Greek goalkeeper Kostas Tzolakis got down well to save his header.
Three minutes later, the 2-2 finally arrived. Lang whipped in a good cross, Zechiël's overhead kick was blocked and the ball dropped for Reijnders. The midfielder did not hesitate and ruthlessly fired home the rebound.
That kept the Netherlands unbeaten in their third match under Xavi and on the heels of group leaders Greece.