In Iceland, Dutch get the chills

Sigurdsson scored twice before the break. He fired home from the spot in the 10th minute after Stefan de Vrij had brought down Birkir Bjarnason and volleyed powerfully into the roof of the net in the 42nd after the Dutch defence failed to clear a corner.

“We put them in the saddle by giving them two goals,” said winger Arjen Robben. “It really is painful that we lost here,” said Dutch captain Robin van Persie, who was kept in check almost all night by a tight Iceland defence.

The second Iceland goal came after a spell of Dutch pressure when Van Persie came close and Robben squandered a great chance by heading wide after a cross from the left by Daley Blind. But those chances were interspersed by sloppy passing and clumsy defending by a Dutch team that appeared a shadow of the side that finished third at the World Cup.

“We have to keep our emotions in check and take a careful look at the state of Dutch football and then talk about how to progress,” Hiddink said.

Since the successful tournament in Brazil, the Dutch have lost a friendly to Italy, lost to the Czech Republic, struggled to victory over Kazakhstan and now lost to Iceland, a dismal record that will put pressure on Hiddink, who is in his second stint in charge after previously leading the Netherlands to the World Cup semifinals in 1998.

Van Persie said it was not fair to blame Hiddink. “Guus is a fantastic coach,” he said. “We are all working as hard as we can to play well.”

Hiddink brought on a second striker, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, at halftime for Wesley Sneijder, but the Schalke striker who came off the bench Friday night to score against Kazakhstan could not make an impact this time. As the Netherlands pushed forward trying to claw their way back into the match, it gave room to Iceland’s forwards and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Bjarnason both came close to extending the host’s lead after the break. “Everyone fought for each other,” Sigthorsson said. “It was a team performance.”

After opening their campaign with a surprise 2-1 win over the Netherlands and beating Turkey by the same score on Friday, the Czechs wrapped up victory over Kazakhstan inside an hour thanks to goals by Borek Dockal, David Lafata and Ladislav Krejci.

The hosts showed off their prowess at set pieces with two late goals by Yuri Logvinenko from corners sandwiching a fourth Czech strike from Tomas Necid. In Latvia, Bilal Kisa opened the scoring for Turkey shortly after halftime with a long-range shot and Valerijs Sabala equalised with a 54th-minute penalty.

Pelle nets on debut, Italy win 

Italy striker Graziano Pelle scored on his debut to earn a 1-0 away win over 10-man Malta with the visitors having hit the woodwork four times in their qualifier on Monday. The Southampton striker, one of four changes made by Antonio Conte after Friday’s laboured 2-1 home win over Azerbaijan in Group H, struck from close range midway through the first half.

Malta fought bravely, especially after captain Michael Mifsud was dismissed in the first half, while the Italians also finished with 10 men as Leonardo Bonucci was shown a straight red card late on for impeding the advancing Andre Schembri.

Italy have a perfect three wins while Malta, who lost 3-0 at home to Norway on Friday, are still looking for their first point. The Italians are level at the top on nine points with Croatia, who beat bottom side Azerbaijan 6-0 on Monday. “We played against a team whose intention was not to let us play,” said Italy coach Conte.

“Having said that, we created a lot of chances and hit the woodwork four times. Our next games are against Croatia and Bulgaria, two teams who will be looking for the points. A proper evaluation of our strength will be made after these two qualifiers.”

Malta coach Pietro Ghedin was encouraged by his side’s performance against one of Europe’s strongest teams. “Our objective was to leave the pitch with the fans’ applause and we managed to do this,” he told reporters. “We have accomplished our mission. For us, this result feels like a win.”