At the Al Thumama stadium, the Netherlands defeated Senegal in their World Cup opener. The Dutch side continued its fine winning momentum as they inflicted a crushing defeat on a clueless Senegal side. The Louis Van Gaal side is now unbeaten in each of its last 16 matches that they’ve played under their new coach.
Senegal, on the other hand, suffered a bitter defeat in their first match of this World Cup campaign. The reigning AFCON winners failed to have any sort of impact on the game as they succumbed to a one-sided loss to the Dutch.
Netherlands got off to a fast start, looking extremely comfortable with the ball in their hands. The Oranje squandered a major opportunity to open the scoring early on inside the 20th minute when De Jong was provided with a fine pass and had space and time to shoot.
The Barcelona man, however, took too many touches and was dispossessed before he could go for goal. Senegal came close to finding an opening goal too when Ismala Sarr took a curling shot, which was headed away behind for a Senegal corner by Virgil Van Dijk.
Senegal came pretty close to taking the lead in the second half when Mendy played Dia forward. The forward took a first shot, which was kept out by the Dutch goalkeeper, Noppert, who came up with a fine save at his near post. It was in the 84th minute that the Netherlands were finally able to break the deadlock. Frenkie De Jong came up with a magnificent whipped cross into the box, which was met by Cody Gakpo.
The PSV man headed the ball after beating Mendy to find the back of the net with sheer brilliance. In the ninth minute of stoppage time, the Netherlands scored their second goal of the game. Depay, who was one-on-one with Mendy, had his shot saved by the keeper. The ball was, however, parried away and fell into the path of Davy Klaasen, who slotted it into an empty net. FT: Netherlands 2-0 Senegal
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