Jürgen Klopp will stand in the away technical area at the Johan Cruijff Arena on Thursday evening and see a familiar face staring back at him. Virgil van Dijk will captain the Netherlands against Germany in Amsterdam, kicking off at 7.45pm UK time, and the man leading Germany out for the very first time will be the manager who signed him for Liverpool eight years ago.
It is Klopp’s first game in senior management of any kind since he left Anfield in the summer of 2024, and his first match ever in charge of a national team. It comes at the start of a new UEFA Nations League campaign for a Germany side still finding its feet after a chastening World Cup. His opposite number is equally new to the job. Xavi Hernández takes charge of the Netherlands for the first time too, and it makes for one of the more intriguing double debuts international football has served up in a while.
Van Dijk Wants Revenge
Van Dijk and Klopp spent six years together at Liverpool, winning the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League a year later, and the defender has made no secret of how much that relationship still means to him. He was equally clear about what he wants to happen on Thursday night.
“I’m excited to see him, but I hope we can make sure he loses his first match as national team coach,” Van Dijk said this week. He followed it with the respect Klopp has earned from him over the years. “He’s a complete coach. It will be a difficult match, but we’re ready.”
Van Dijk will not be the only familiar face in orange. Cody Gakpo, Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Gravenberch are all involved for the Dutch, meaning four current Liverpool players will line up against the man who built so much of that club’s modern identity. Klopp has been just as direct about the challenge in front of him, joking this week that his knowledge of the opposition might count for something. “I know players from the Netherlands personally more than Xavi knows them. Is that an advantage? I don’t know. But it’s a fact anyway,” he said, before adding a more sober note about the occasion itself. “In Amsterdam I haven’t heard of many friendly matches between the Netherlands and Germany. So it starts straight away.”
Why Klopp Is Here At All
Germany turned to Klopp in July after a summer that left the federation with little choice. Julian Nagelsmann resigned as head coach following a shock round of 32 exit at the 2026 World Cup, and after weeks of speculation the German FA landed on the one name most supporters actually wanted. Klopp signed a contract running through to the 2030 World Cup, and Thursday night in Amsterdam is where that project properly begins.
He has not eased himself in gently on selection either. Klopp has split his squad in two across Germany’s four fixtures this international window, against the Netherlands, Greece twice and Serbia, using the extended break to look at a wider pool of players than a single squad would allow. Florian Wirtz misses the Netherlands game as a result, held back for the second half of the window rather than dropped, which at least spares Liverpool’s most expensive summer signing the most physically demanding of the four matches. Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz are both involved in this opening squad, so Germany’s two most inventive attacking players will not actually play together until later in the window. There is a welcome return too for Marc-André ter Stegen, back in a squad for the first time in 15 months after a long injury lay-off.
Klopp has already tried to set the tone he wants from this Germany side, talking about a team that can find its identity under pressure rather than simply naming a strong XI and hoping for the best. “The first lesson for our shared future: we learn to enjoy ourselves under pressure,” he said. He was just as blunt when asked what he actually values as a coach. “I stand by my opinion: footballing quality shows when a team has stability in its defensive behaviour.”
Xavi’s Own Baptism
The Netherlands job has its own recent history of upheaval. Ronald Koeman resigned after the nation suffered its earliest World Cup exit in years, beaten by Morocco, and the Dutch federation spent the summer working through a list of candidates before turning to Xavi. He was open about the fact that he was not first choice, with Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s Arne Slot both reportedly considered ahead of him, and he shrugged the suggestion off when it was put to him directly at his unveiling. “I don’t care if I am the third choice or the tenth choice. I am honoured to be the manager of the Netherlands,” he said.
Whatever order the phone calls were made in, Xavi now has the job, and a Nations League group containing Germany immediately tells him where he stands. The two countries have not always needed a competitive fixture to produce a genuine occasion, and Thursday’s meeting arrives with both benches carrying something to prove. Germany have not lost this fixture since a 2-2 draw at this same stadium two years ago, though recent history will count for very little once Klopp and Xavi are both stood on the touchline for the first time.
For Klopp, it is a chance to show that the qualities which built Liverpool into European champions can be transferred to international management, where preparation time is limited and results arrive in short, sharp bursts rather than across a long league season. For Van Dijk, it is a chance to do to his old manager exactly what he used to do to Liverpool’s opponents on his best afternoons. Either way, German and Dutch football both have new eras starting in the same stadium, at the same time, against each other.
If nights like this are the kind of football story that gets you excited, stick around. It Was Always… Football will have more of them coming.