Xavi's Netherlands routs Greece 7-0 in Nations League and Klopp's Germany also wins

The Netherlands routed Greece 7-0 in a statement Nations League victory to stay unbeaten under new coach Xavi, while Jürgen Klopp's Germany cruised to a 3-1 win over Serbia on Friday.

That now sets up a decider between the two big-name coaches for first place in their group.

Tijjani Reijnders scored a hat trick and Jurrien Timber had two goals in a rampant win for the Netherlands, which was 5-0 up by halftime and equaled the biggest win in the eight-year history of the Nations League.

“The first half was amazing, so I have to congratulate the players. But it’s just one game," Xavi said. "We need to continue like this, but this is the way. The players are training so hard. I’m very proud of them.”

Beaming and holding up three fingers, Reijnders celebrated a hat trick which came off a series of slick team moves to tear apart the Greek defense in Amsterdam.

Crysencio Summerville got the Netherlands started with a sixth-minute opener before Reijnders scored three in the space of 21 minutes, Timber added two more and Donyell Malen a seventh.

The Netherlands joins England, Germany and Finland as the fourth team to win a Nations League game by seven goals. England's 7-0 win over Croatia came just last month.

Germany is three points behind Group A2 leader the Netherlands before they play on Monday in Berlin.

The top two in the group advance to the quarterfinals, with head-to-head record as the tiebreaker. The Netherlands, Germany and Greece are all able to qualify. Serbia is last after losing all of its five games.

Goals from Florian Wirtz and debutant Brajan Gruda lifted Germany to its second win in five games with Klopp as coach after a slow start to his tenure. “We probably should have scored more, but there is no reason to be critical tonight,” Klopp said.

In driving rain, Germany was ahead after just three minutes when Serbia defender Srdjan Babic turned Germany forward Kai Havertz’s header into his own goal.

It was 2-0 soon after when Wirtz flicked a rebound over goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, who had parried a shot from Havertz.

Klopp’s experimental squad, with Freiburg winger Derry Scherhant but no place for Barcelona’s Karim Adeyemi, added a third when Leipzig's Gruda dribbled through the center of the Serbian defense to score Germany’s third.

Babic canceled out his earlier own goal by scoring for Serbia on a rebound, but chances of a comeback were ended when Vanja Dragojevic was sent off for a reckless tackle on Joshua Kimmich's ankle. Serbia finished with nine players after a late red for Andrija Zivkovic after arguing with the referee.

The 50,000-capacity Rajko Mitic stadium was almost empty because Serbia was supported by only 5,000 accompanied children and teenagers. That's because UEFA was punishing the Serbian soccer federation for fans’ offensive behavior in the previous rounds.

Switzerland is playing in the second tier of the Nations League for the first time, but its bid to rejoin Europe's elite stayed on course in a 0-0 draw with Slovenia, its closest rival in Group B1. Scotland won against North Macedonia 2-1.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Serbia's goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic reacts during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Serbia and Germany in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Germany's Brajan Gruda, right, celebrates with Germany's Maximilian Mittelstadt after scoring his side's third goal during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Serbia and Germany in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Germany's head coach Juergen Klopp walks on the pitch before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Serbia and Germany in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Dutch players celebrate after a goal during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between the Netherlands and Greece in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

Tijjani Reijnders, of the Netherlands, celebrates after scoring thrid goal during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between the Netherlands and Greece in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

STARBASE, Texas (AP) — SpaceX launched Starship toward orbit Friday in its boldest test yet: a 22-hour flight that aims to capture the entire rocket in a move meant to accelerate moon and Mars travel.

If all goes well, Elon Musk’s company will perform an unprecedented double catch, with the massive booster returning to its Texas pad six minutes after blasting off and the bullet-shaped spacecraft steering there Saturday. Both will be plucked from midair by mechanical arms secured to the launch tower.

If Musk and his team succeed, it will be the first time every single piece of a rocket that is launched into orbit gets retrieved for the purpose of recycling. Musk sees this leading to the kind of fast and consistent launch rates necessary for building moon bases and sending people to Mars.

“It’s hard to describe how I’m going to feel when we pull this off,” SpaceX’s Kiko Dontchev, vice president of launch, said at a NASA tech summit last week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. “It’s so incredibly exciting. It’s such a feat of engineering.”

Once in orbit, Starship will deliver 26 of the company’s most advanced Starlink satellites. The plan is for Starship to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of around 170 miles (275 kilometers) before heading back to the launch site for Saturday’s grand finale.

SpaceX has already made three booster grabs at the company’s sprawling Starbase near the U.S.-Mexico border. This will be the first attempt to capture the upgraded version that stretches 236 feet (72 meters) — the production model for moon and Mars expeditions. It will also be the first time the company attempts to catch the spacecraft, which spans 171 feet (52 meters). Together, they form the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — an astounding 407 feet (124 meters) in height.

The spacecraft portion of the 14 previous Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight’s end or by accident in a stream of flaming wreckage. During the first full-scale test flight in 2023, multiple engines failed to ignite and the tumbling rocket’s self-destruct system was activated.

The last test, in September, was the first to reach orbit, but SpaceX did not try to recover any of the rocket stages.

SpaceX plans to start launching Starships from Florida within a few months and from Louisiana in a few years. Scaled-up infrastructure, combined with full rocket reusability, is “how you go from zero launches to 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000,” Dontchev said.

SpaceX’s smaller Falcon rockets will continue to fly from Cape Canaveral, carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA and from California carrying Starlinks. Satellites also will keep hitching Falcon rides for now. Musk wants Starships to eventually replace Falcons.

Falcon rockets “are still not fully reusable. We still throw that second stage away every single flight. Starship, we’re going to catch both the first stage and second stage,” Dontchev said.

NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars to land Artemis astronauts on the moon with Starships. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is the other major player. NASA expects to decide a year before the Artemis IV lunar landing — the first by astronauts in more than half a century — whether to get the moonwalkers to the surface with Musk’s Starship or Bezos’ Blue Moon.

During next summer’s Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their capsule with a Blue Moon and then a Starship in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for an Artemis moon touchdown as early as 2028.

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SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

People gather to watch as SpaceX's mega rocket Starship, getting stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)