France-Netherlands matches 1907-2024


Introduction
Official Matches
Overviews
Watersnoodwedstrijd

Introduction

Unlike the matches against Belgium and Germany, or even England, Dutch matches against France never evoked any great emotions on the Dutch side (nor on the French). Before the second World War, France hardly counted as serious opponents (Oranje won 5 of the 7 matches, outscoring les bleus 33-14 in the process; the overall record would have been even more lopsided had the French teams not withdrawn from the consolation tournament at the 1908 London Olympics, in which France would have met the Netherlands to decide third place but declined to play any further matches after embarrassing losses (0-9 and 1-17) to Denmark), and afterwards meetings were few and far between for a long time.
That changed towards the end of the twentieth century; meanwhile the two have met four times at European Championships and in numerous qualifiers. And while the Dutch are still unbeaten against the French in final tournaments (apart from the penalty shoot-out loss in 1996, in a quarter-final in which the Dutch were denied a last minute penalty), they lost seven of the last nine matches and thereby the lead in the overall count, in spite of having scored more goals.

Nevertheless, one match involving the French national team had a major impact on Dutch footballing history, and it doesn't even show in the official records. France had introduced professional football before the second World War, whereas Dutch football remained staunchly amateur until the mid-fifties. Directly after the war, many of the best Dutch players (such as Appel, De Harder, Rijvers and Timmermans) went to play professional football in France (Wilkes, the best Dutch player apart from Lenstra, who never left the country, made it to Spain and Italy). When the North Sea Flood (watersnoodramp) struck the southwestern part of the Netherlands in the night from 31 January to 1 February 1953, with more than 1800 people dying in the floods in the Netherlands (there were further casualties in England and Belgium, totalling more than 300, and over 200 on the sea itself), a relief match was organised in Paris between the French national team and a selection of Dutch professionals. (Contrary to popular belief, the Dutch FA (K.N.V.B.) played a decisive role in the organisation of this match, as documented by [Kol 09], pp. 272 ff.) This match, played on 12 March 1953 at the Parc des Princes, resulted in a sensational 2-1 victory for the Dutch professionals and was attended by five to ten thousand Dutch fans who had travelled from the Netherlands. The obvious gap in quality between the Dutch professionals and the official Dutch national team (which five days earlier had played an official benefit match in Rotterdam, losing 1-2 to Denmark) triggered the advent of professional football in the Netherlands one year later.


Official Matches

All matches listed are friendlies unless otherwise stated.

Game    Date     Venue                Result            Remark

  1. 10- 5-1908  Rotterdam  Netherlands 4-1 France
  -. 24-10-1908  London     Netherlands w/o France      [Olympic Games (Consolation Tournament)]
  2. 13-11-1921  Paris      France      0-5 Netherlands
  3.  2- 4-1923  Amsterdam  Netherlands 8-1 France
  4. 29-11-1931  Paris      France      3-4 Netherlands
  5. 10- 5-1934  Amsterdam  Netherlands 4-5 France
  6. 12- 1-1936  Paris      France      1-6 Netherlands
  7. 31-10-1937  Amsterdam  Netherlands 2-3 France
  8. 26- 5-1947  Paris      France      4-0 Netherlands
  9. 23- 4-1949  Rotterdam  Netherlands 4-1 France
 10. 10-12-1950  Paris      France      5-2 Netherlands
  -. 12- 3-1953  Paris      France      1-2 "Pros" Hollandais
 11. 17- 4-1963  Rotterdam  Netherlands 1-0 France
 12. 26- 3-1980  Paris      France      0-0 Netherlands
 13. 25- 3-1981  Rotterdam  Netherlands 1-0 France      [World Cup Qualifier]
 14. 18-11-1981  Paris      France      2-0 Netherlands [World Cup Qualifier]
 15. 10-11-1982  Rotterdam  Netherlands 1-2 France
 16.  5- 6-1992  Lens       France      1-1 Netherlands
 17. 10- 1-1995  Utrecht    Netherlands 0-1 France
 18. 22- 6-1996  Liverpool  France      0-0 Netherlands [European Champ., asdet, 5-4 pen]
 19. 26- 2-1997  Paris      France      2-1 Netherlands
 20. 21- 6-2000  Amsterdam  Netherlands 3-2 France      [European Champ.]
 21. 31- 3-2004  Rotterdam  Netherlands 0-0 France
 22. 13- 6-2008  Bern       Netherlands 4-1 France      [European Champ.]
 23.  5- 3-2014  Paris      France      2-0 Netherlands
 24. 25- 3-2016  Amsterdam  Netherlands 2-3 France
 25. 10-10-2016  Amsterdam  Netherlands 0-1 France      [World Cup Qualifier]
 26. 31- 8-2017  Paris      France      4-0 Netherlands [World Cup Qualifier]
 27.  9- 9-2018  Paris      France      2-1 Netherlands [European Nations League]
 28. 16-11-2018  Rotterdam  Netherlands 2-0 France      [European Nations League]
 29. 24- 3-2023  Paris      France      4-0 Netherlands [European Champ. Qual.]
 30. 13-10-2023  Amsterdam  Netherlands 1-2 France      [European Champ. Qual.]
 31. 21- 6-2024  Leipzig    Netherlands 0-0 France      [European Champ.]

Overviews

NB: do not include Dutch walkover win at the 1908 Olympic consolation tournament.

Total record:

France               31 15  5 11  53- 57  35
Netherlands          31 11  5 15  57- 53  27

Some more stats:

                     Pd  F  D  N  FG- NG

In France:           13  8  2  3  30- 20
In the Netherlands:  15  7  1  7  22- 33
Elsewhere:            3  0  2  1   1-  4


Watersnoodwedstrijd

Parc des Princes, Paris, 12 March 1953

France      1-2 "Pros" Hollandais

France: Ruminski (Lille); Marche (Reims), Jonquet (Reims), Gianessi
        (Roubaix-Tourcoing); Gaulon (Stade Français), Penverne (Reims);
        Deladerrière (Nancy), Gardien (Sochaux), Saunier (Le Havre),
        Ujlaki (Nîmes), Kopa (Reims); trainer: Pibarot;
"Pros" Hollandais: De Munck (Köln); Vreeken (Nantes), Van der Hart 
                   (Lille), De Vroet (Rouen); Schaap (Racing Paris),
                   De Kubber (Bordeaux), Appel (Reims), Timmermans 
                   (Nîmes), Van Geen (Nantes), Rijvers (Saint-Etienne),
                   De Harder (Bordeaux); trainer: Delfour (Stade Français);
                   subs: Van Lent (Lens), Röhrig (Roubaix-Tourcoing);
referee: Elschen (Luxembourg).

Goals:  34' Saunier 1-0;  58' De Harder 1-1;  81' Appel 1-2.
Attendance: 32,000

NB: thanks to this match, 110,000 Dutch guilders were collected for
    the relief fund for the victims of the 1953 Flood; it also triggered
    the advent of professional football in the Netherlands in 1954.

France - List of International Matches
Netherlands - List of International Matches


About this document

Thanks to Roberto Di Maggio

Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 22 Jun 2024

(C) Copyright Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 1996/2024
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.