Ryan Gravenberch makes Dominik Szoboszlai look foolish with filthy move on Liverpool teammate

Friday's UEFA Nations League contest between Hungary and the Netherlands started with a hug between Liverpool teammates (and rivals for the day) Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch .

Six minutes later, Gravenberch received the ball in his defensive third close to the right touchline. He cooly hit a smooth roulette past Szoboszlai to carry the ball upfield.

However, the Dutch midfielder crashed into teammate Xavi Simons shortly after and the ball promptly bounced back into the eager feet of Szoboszlai.

The game at Ferenc Puskas Stadium in Budapest finished 1-1. Roland Sallai opened the scoring for Hungary in the 32nd minute before a Cody Gakpo set-piece found the head of Denzel Dumfries for an 83rd-minute equalizer.

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Dutch and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk was sent off in the 79th minute for a second yellow, ruling the center-back out of his nation's clash on Monday against Germany.

Van Dijk, Gakpo, and Gravenberch all started in the national team and have emerged as arguably the three most important figures -- alongside the uber-talented Simons -- in coach Ronald Koeman's squad.

The match marked Gravenberch's 15th cap for his nation. The 23-year-old was a fixture in the Dutch midfield during his breakout 2020-22 spell on Erik Ten Hag's Ajax team, even earning a spot on the plane for the 2021 Euros.

Gravenberch was out of the national team throughout the 2022-23 campaign as he struggled to earn game time for Bayern Munich. After a 2023 summer switch to Liverpool, he rejected a call-up to the Dutch under-23s.

A strong start to the 2024-25 Premier League season has seen the Liverpool midfielder break back into the Dutch setup. Gravenberch has started each of his side's first seven league games as Liverpool claimed 18 of 21 possible points.

When he returned to the national team in September, Koeman offered some interesting quotes explaining the 23-year-old's turnaround.

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"We have always seen a lot of potential in Ryan," Koeman told Dutch outlet AD.nl . "A lot of people, including me, thought that a bit of concentration, the laziness, could be improved in him."

""It was too easy [for him when he was younger]. It seems – we are talking about two matches now – that he realizes what is required in the midfield of Liverpool in the Premier League. That is the reality. If a player is given the trust or the chance, that can be the push in the right direction.”

Gravenberch responded to his national team manager: "It’s not nonsense; everyone has their own opinion," Gravenberch told De Telegraaf . "People say about me that I’m a bit nonchalant. That’s just in me. Now I have that nonchalance too, but people don’t really talk about it, because things are going well at Liverpool."