ROBIN van Persie and Wesley Sneijder have both declared themselves available for the Netherlands' World Cup qualifying clash with Norway after recovering from hamstring and knee injuries respectively.
Real Madrid midfielder Sneijder suffered a knee ligament injury in pre-season and came on as a substitute in Saturday's 2-0 win over Iceland but is hoping for a starting berth in Oslo tonight.
"I am fit, I have recovered," he said. "Everything wo
rks as it should. I would have liked to play 90 minutes against Iceland instead of ten. It is true the agreement with Real Madrid says we will try to win both qualifiers without taking risks, but I am ready (to start]."
Van Persie admitted he has been more cautious on his return from injury, but said claims in the media he is injury-prone do not concern him.
"After my previous injury, I made the mistake at Arsenal of kicking the ball with all my force in my first training session," he told AD Sportwereld. "I will not make that mistake again. But I do feel very good. I trained hard the last couple of days and all the tests were positive.
"I have been injured a lot lately but whatever the outside world says is not important to me.
"I just want to be fit and play as many games as I can. The entire pre-season went well at Arsenal and in the league too. Picking up a hamstring injury can happen to any player at the moment."
The Netherlands have maximum points from their opening two fixtures and top Group 9, two points ahead of Scotland, who drew 0-0 with Norway on Saturday. The Scandinavians, who have two points, have yet to lose in qualifying but they are also still waiting for their first win, and coach Aage Hareide wants that to change in Oslo.
"We have to be aggressive in defence so they can't produce shots from good positions," he said.
"And in attack, I think we can show how to make things tricky for Holland with two strong strikers such as John Carew and Steffen Iversen.
"If Holland have an Achilles heel, we'll find it. Holland at home is no greater a challenge than Scotland away. Macedonia, for example, managed to cause them trouble.
"But we still can't afford to make mistakes. We have to drill it into the players' heads that only three points will do."
ANALYSIS• NETHERLANDS WIN
The Dutch would move five points clear of Scotland, who have four points from three games so far. So long as Macedonia do not win in Iceland, George Burley's side would remain in at least a tie for second spot in the group and a potential play-off place.
• NORWAY WIN
Age Hareide's side would leap above Scotland by one point, trailing the Netherlands by the same margin.
• A DRAW
The Netherlands move three points clear of Scotland, while Norway close to within a point. It would mean the Scots could draw level on points with the Dutch by defeating them in Amsterdam in March.
The full article contains 523 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
