Netherlands forward Vivianne Miedema scores 100th goal, feeling ‘liberated' in Euros return
That much was clear when the Netherlands national team ran through their pre-match warm-ups in the Swissporarena Stadium under a hot Swiss sun ahead of their Euro 2025 opener against Wales. As the rest of the team completed 10-yard sprints from one cone to another, the 28-year-old Manchester City forward sprinted past the designated cone, darting towards some reward only she could see.
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On Saturday, that reward was obvious: more history. No Dutch player in the Netherlands' football history has managed 100 goals. Miedema has done so (none from the penalty spot) in 126 appearances, opening the scoring in the Netherlands' 3-0 victory over Wales.
In essence, there is now just under an 80 per cent chance that Miedema will find the back of the net when wearing the Netherlands' colours. The ludicrous nature of the statement explains why, when news filtered through that Miedema was not only starting, but also wearing the captain's armband, match reports began writing themselves. Miedema is the Women's Super League (WSL) and Netherlands' all-time goalscorer. She scored a hat-trick in her second international match. Her presence carries an expectation.
But the past few years have been challenging. Twenty-two months stretch between Miedema's 95th goal (September 2022 against Scotland) and 96th goal (July 2024 against Norway), months filled with injury, tears, crippling doubt. 'Will I be at this tournament? Will I not?' Miedema recited in her post-match press conference as she shared her internal monologue leading up to this tournament.
In October 2024, she recorded her first full competitive 90-minute match in over a year due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Between January and March, she felt good, powerful. 'And then I got injured again,' she recalled of a hamstring injury in April that forced her to miss the remainder of the WSL season.
Netherlands' head coach Andries Jonker told media in his pre-match press conference that he would not risk Miedema against Wales. And while mind games are always a choice, the 63-year-old seemed earnest. Since his tenure began in August 2022, Miedema has featured in less than 20 matches due to injury woes, including an ACL injury sustained in December 2022 that ruled her out of the Women's World Cup. In Jonker's memory, it is just 10 matches Miedema has played. 'Nine of which I have been able to use her for only a few minutes,' he said before Saturday's match.
But there is risk, and there is Miedema, and the Netherlands are simply not a force without her.
So despite the nerves gnawing in her stomach upon waking up ('I never have those, but this morning was different'), Miedema started. And Miedema prowled. Against a well-organised and disciplined Welsh defence, she and the rest of her team struggled for much of the first-half. Miedema, in particular, looking as if she was carrying the weight of two and a half years on her shoulders.
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'I think I was having a heat stroke because I was playing horribly,' Miedema joked afterwards. The Euro 2017 winners managed just six shots with one on target and an expected goals (xG) of 0.27 by the time the third official confirmed three minutes of injury time, their long balls unable to find their mark.
But this is why you risk. Because in the second minute of stoppage time, there is not one crossover but two, a crossover that's not really a crossover but a kind of permanent tangling. Then the goal, a perfect Miedema flex of silk and pure predatorial instinct.
'Liberated' is how Miedema described the impact of her goal, a simple word with so many consequences.
If Miedema is a redemption story, hers paved the way for a second in Victoria Pelova. The 26-year-old scored the Netherlands' second, meeting Danielle van de Donk's cross and drilling her effort past Wales goalkeeper Olivia Clark into the bottom-left corner. The goal came one year, one month and a day since the Arsenal midfielder tore her ACL in their Euro qualifier against Finland. She then assisted the Netherlands' third goal as she dinked a high cross to the back post, where Esmee Brugts waited to beat Clark at her near post.
'It's unbelievable,' said Pelova on Miedema's triumph. 'It's so nice for her. I feel like I'll have to play another 70 years to match her. She means so much to us. Scoring all those goals, who doesn't want a striker like that?'
And then there is Miedema herself. 'This morning was the first time I said aloud that I would play at the Euros,' Miedema said, allowing herself a soft, slow smile. 'My goal, I finally thought, don't think. Just shoot. Sometimes you need something special like that.'
There were tears, along with a goal celebration that made little sense. 'I saw a photo, we look ridiculous,' Miedema laughed at a photo that featured herself, Kerstin Casparij and Veerle Buurman seemingly attempting to spell out 100, but Casparij instead chose to spell VIV, an accidental yet appropriate re-spelling of a number that fails to actually encapsulate the feat at hand.
'What she can do in women's soccer, there is no one like her,' said Jonker. 'She is one of a kind.'
But most importantly, Miedema has brought a sense of hope to a team that felt under siege in the 24 hours leading into this match after comments made by Jonker about his upcoming departure and replacement following the tournament.
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In her pre-match media duties, Netherlands' record-cap holder Sherida Spitse said that winning the first game was paramount to the team's campaign. 'Because that is what happened in 2017.'
What also happened in 2017 was that Miedema scored four times, including in the 3-0 semi-final win over England and twice in the 4-2 final win against Denmark. 'That is still my No 1,' Miedema says of her goals in the final. 'But my 100th is a close second.'
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