De Ligt: This Netherlands teams is a special unit

Netherlands midfielder Matthijs de Ligt expects a lot from his team at the 2022 World Cup:

- I think we have a good team with many young players, who can grow through an event such as this, - he said to Bayern club magazine. - For some of the boys it's their first World Cup. If we start the tournament well and gather momentum, then we can go far.

There have been Dutch teams in the past who perhaps were individually better, but I think we're a special unit. Most of the boys have known each other for many, many years, we're really like a group of friends - and that can be an advantage for us in a long tournament. It's important you treat each other professionally and can talk about things if something's not going well, but that friendly relationship is something very important in our team.

The big names in our team are no secrets. Every football fan in Europe knows players like Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay. It's much more important to me that we perform together as a team, and every individual has to contribute to that.