Beating Norway 2-0 in the last match of Group G on November 16, the Netherlands won the final direct ticket to the final 2022 World Cup in Europe.
The Netherlands entered the final match with the goal of earning points to keep the top spot. They have 20 points, two more than Turkey and Norway. The Netherlands may miss the second World Cup in a row, if it loses to Norway, and Turkey beats Montenegro in the final round.
Despite many difficulties, the Netherlands still completed the task, even better than the goal when defeating Norway thanks to two goals from Steven Bergwijn and Memphis Depay in the last five minutes. Coach Van Gaal’s teachers and students firmly took the first place with 23 points, thereby winning a direct ticket to the 2022 World Cup finals. In the match at the same time, Turkey won 2-1 at Montenegro to end the qualifying round with second place in the group, through that into the play-off kick to win tickets to Qatar.
With the important nature of the match, Van Gaal launched the strongest squad. He replaced four positions compared to the 2-2 draw with Montenegro on November 13, when Jasper Cillessen, Matthijs de Ligt and Arnaut Danjuma started.
The Netherlands pushed up the line right after the opening, and created a series of dangerous opportunities. The ball almost only rolled on the Norwegian field, when the Netherlands controlled the ball 67% of the time in the first 45 minutes. Norway didn’t even have a shot in the first half in Rotterdam.
The best opportunities belong to Depay. In the 13th minute, Tottenham’s Bergwijn player made a technical cheek from the right, but Depay’s header was too light, and the ball was also right by goalkeeper Haaskjold Nyland. Two minutes later, it was the Barca striker who cut and hit his heel from Denzel Dumfries’ cross. But Nyland continues to be the winner.
In the 27th minute, De Jong opened the border for Bergwijn to cross the ball with one touch from the right. Depay headed high, but the ball once again went right to Nyland’s position. Five minutes before half-time, Depay continued to try his luck with a volley from the edge of the box, but failed.
Having difficulty scoring, but Van Gaal did not adjust personnel immediately after the 15 minute break. He was only reluctant to make a substitution in the 73rd minute, when Marten de Roon replaced the injured Davy Klaassen.
In a stalemate, the Netherlands could only make a difference thanks to the star moment. In the 84th minute, Danjuma dropped the ball just in range for Bergwijn to finish off the roof of the away team. This is the Netherlands’ latest opening goal, since they opened the scoring in the 90th minute against Albania in September 2007.
In the first minute of injury time, in a counter-attack, Bergwijn poured the ball from his own half, penetrated the opponent’s penalty area, before crossing to let Depay finish in the empty net, making the score 2-0. This result helped the Netherlands win tickets to the 11th World Cup, and the first time since the 2014 World Cup – the tournament they finished third under Louis van Gaal.
