Virgil van Dijk saved Holland
The Oranje needed just a point from their clash with their great rivals to secure a spot in the inaugural UEFA Nations League finals next summer, at France's expense.
But Ronald Koeman's men looked set to end 2018 in defeat, after falling 2-0 down inside 20 minutes at the Veltins Arena.
Timo Werner and Leroy Sane both found the net to give Jogi Loew's side a lead, which Die Mannschaft never looked like throwing away until the game entered its final throes.
Cue Quincy Promes, the Spartak Moscow winger handing his side a lifeline with a superb curling effort to reduce the arrears. And that led to Koeman and his Dutch side going for broke with a tactical change that was more John Beck than Rinus Michels.
Total Football? Pah. In Gelsenkirchen, the time called for Cambridge United's finest.
Beck was described as 'Dracula' during his managerial career - apparently he sucked the blood out of football - and was once labelled in one newspaper as "the bête noire of the beautiful game".
That's rather different to legendary ex-Ajax and Holland boss Michels, whose footballing bloodline ran through Johan Cruyff, onto Pep Guardiola and a host of other fine coaches.But sometimes, going long and sticking the big man up top proves just the job; on Monday night, it did the business for Koeman, who has breathed new life into the Orange with his pragmatic approach after Danny Blind's dismal reign and the failed return of Dick Advocaat.
In injury time, their reward for going back in time was a stunning strike from Liverpool rock Van Dijk, a ruthless volley that crashed past Manuel Neuer, leaving the net rippling and the travelling Dutch contingent in delirium. Of course, it wasn't merely that simple.
For while Van Dijk was pushed up front alongside Luuk de Jong, to keep balance highly-rated midfielder Frenkie de Jong dropped into the heart of a three-man defence as the Oranje went 3-2-3-2.
However, was it actually a cunning plan from Koeman?
Or did the ex-Everton boss, whose Goodison Park reign started brightly but ended in disarray after a shoddy summer of poor transfer dealings led to shoddier performance, even know what was happening?Perhaps it was actually the latter. Because, handed a note from assistant boss Dwight Lodeweges, Koeman admits not even looking at it. Instead, he passed it on swiftly to right-back Kenny Tete, who in turn handed it to Van Dijk.
Koeman's reaction after the second goal, laughing at his bench as players and staff piled on one another - presumably Lodeweges was at the bottom of the pile - was telling.
"I received the letter from (assistant coach) Dwight Lodeweges,” revealed Koeman. "But I did not know what was written on it.
"It's great that Virgil scores that late equaliser of course - how often did Germany score in the last minute in recent years? Now it appears the Netherlands can do it too."Koeman added: "Of course, with Dwight and Kees van Wonderen we went through different scenarios prior to the game, and also that we had to force something in the final phase.
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