Netherlands vs Germany: Picking a Combined XI of European Legends
No nation can boast more Ballon d'Or wins than the seven to which the Netherlands and Germany can both brag about.
This fixture has been the stage for some of the game's greats to strut their stuff and the plethora of stars to have worn orange or white is so great that there are enough viable candidates for countless multiples of the amount listed below.
Nevertheless, here are the ones who made the cut, after much painstaking deliberation...
GK - Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands)
A player cited by both Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Neuer as their goalkeeping inspiration, Van der Sar is one of the greatest to have stood between the sticks in European football.
In 130 appearances for the Dutch national team, the former Ajax and Manchester United keeper only ever played Germany six times, with just one coming in a competitive environment - a 1-1 draw in the group stage of Euro 2004.
RB - Philipp Lahm (Germany)
Lahm's Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola once rated him as 'perhaps the most intelligent player I have ever coached.' Germany's long-serving captain was so tactically versatile one commentator jokingly described him as a 'verteidigende Mittelfeldflügelstürmer' - a defender-midfielder-winger-striker.
Germany and the Netherlands' fiercest battles weren't played out during his career but he was skipper for their victory over the Dutch in the group stage of Euro 2012.
CB - Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
When Johan Cruyff was fouled in the opening exchanges of the 1974 World Cup final, referee Jack Taylor blew for a penalty to which Beckenbauer said to him: “You are an Englishman.”
Der Kaiser later admitted it was a way of implying the official’s prejudice because of the two World Wars and the 1966 and 1970 World Cups - this was just one example of the lengths Beckenbauer would go to secure victory, an eventuality he would become used to.
As both a player and manager of West Germany, Beckenbauer defeated the Netherlands en route to lifting the World Cup trophy.
CB - Ronald Koeman (Netherlands)
Koeman can lay claim to the incredibly hard to validate record of the world's highest scoring defender, and two of those strikes came against the old enemy.
In the semi-final of the 1988 Euros, Koeman had been the player to bring the Dutch level with West Germany before the Oranje found a second to exorcise those demons from 1974.
Unfortunately, he will be remembered for somewhat sullying that night by using Olaf Thon's shirt to wipe his backside. Gross.
LB - Paul Breitner (Germany)
A Maoist full-back with a moustache almost as impressive as the calmness he showed when coolly slotting the equalising penalty against the Dutch in that 'Lost Final' of 1974, his first of two appearances on a World Cup final scoresheet.
CM - Frank Rijkaard
Rijkaard started his career as a defender and soon became one of the world's best, coming third in the 1988 Ballon d'Or after winning that year's Euros in defence - beating Germany on the way.
Arrigo Sacchi then deployed him in midfield at AC Milan, winning back-to-back European Cups and he came third in the Ballon d'Or again, this time as a midfielder.
Yet in a Germany vs Netherlands context, he is synonymous for his quite literal spat with Rudi Völler at the 1990 World Cup. As one of the most amiable footballers of his time, this is an unfair reflection of his performance as a player and more specifically against Germany.
Other than that unfortunate incident, Rijkaard twice played the Dutch rivals in European Championships and twice prevailed, even scoring in their 3-1 victory in 1992.
CM - Lothar Matthäus
The World Cup and Ballon d'Or winner made his international debut against the Dutch in the group stage of Euro 1980.
20 years later, one of his final appearances for Germany came against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, where their captain that day, Edgar Davids, presented him with a bouquet of flowers.
It's a testament to his career that a player considered to be the arch-German had been accepted by the Oranje.
CM - Ruud Gullit
A truly phenomenal player in his prime, the sight of Gullit's dreadlock-mullet whipping forward as the man on the other end of the hair powered in a header was almost mesmeric.
When Holland met Germany at three successive major tournaments between 1988 and 1992, Gullit was captain for each as his side prevailed in two of the three encounters.
AM - Johan Cruyff
As the Netherlands lined up against West Germany for the 1974 World Cup final, you could be forgiven for wondering why the Dutch goalkeeper was wearing number eight. This was due to the quirk the Oranje tried out where their players wore numbers based on alphabetical order, which instead led to forward Ruud Geels wearing number one.
If it seems unlikely that a “G” name would be first on an alphabetical list, in fact, he should have been given number two, but Johan Cruyff was allowed to wear an out-of-sequence number 14 shirt. Why? Because he's Johan Cruyff.
The man once named ‘Pythagoras in boots’, Cruyff was simply the best player ever produced by the Netherlands, or possibly any other nation.
ST - Gerd Müller
As one of the most prolific strikers the game has ever seen, Müller's goal two minutes before half-time in the 1974 World Cup final, which trickled over the line, shattering Dutch hearts, may have been the most important of his career and the history of the rivalry.
ST - Marco van Basten
When Van Basten latched onto a pass in behind West Germany's back line in the semi-final of Euro 1988, it looked to have taken him too wide. But with one swift swivel he'd hooked the ball into the side-netting to take the Netherlands through at the expense of their greatest rivals.
The crowd at the stadium erupted but back home, millions of the population poured onto the streets, singing, dancing, drinking in anything orange they could find thanks to the goal scored by the man who would temporarily have Amsterdam's Leidsplein renamed in his honour.