2026 World Cup: Netherlands Run Rampant, Defeat Sweden 5-1 in a Devastating Victory
The Netherlands is starting to get serious at the 2026 World Cup. After a disappointing 2-2 draw in their opener against Japan, the Oranje have dramatically boosted their chances of advancing by handing Sweden—fresh off a 5-1 victory over Tunisia—a resounding 5-1 defeat in Houston. Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo were the key players, each scoring two goals, with Summerville sealing the victory late in the game after Elanga had pulled one back for the Scandinavians. Compared to their opening match, the Swedes appeared weak, disorganized, and even resigned to defeat in the second half.
It took Brobbey just 5 minutes to open the scoring, capitalizing on an assist from Gakpo following a sweeping, overwhelming attack that also involved former Milan player Reijnders. Sweden’s attempt to fight back—dangerous through Gyokeres—was quashed in the 17th minute when the unstoppable Brobbey doubled the lead, this time scoring with a split kick off a cross from Inter’s Dumfries. The Scandinavians kept trying, but they were inaccurate and, at times, unlucky: Karlstrom’s volley crashed into Lindelof’s face. Then Lagerbielke’s header, which would have brought the game back into play, beat Verbruggen, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
It looked like the game might be back in play, but the Netherlands took just a few seconds to seal the deal once and for all early in the second half. In fact, the clock reads 47 minutes when Dumfries once again makes a run down the wing and crosses the ball into the box, where this time it’s Gakpo who converts it into his team’s third goal. And in the 54th minute, he scores his second goal of the match, this time with a great right-footed shot from the left flank after a pass from the newly substituted Summerville. It is Summerville himself who seals the victory in the 89th minute, the culmination of a well-worked play that Depay caps off with the decisive assist. Sweden never really got into the game, except in the 59th minute when Elanga received a pass from Isak and beat Verbruggen as he came off his line.
With this result, the standings in Group F suddenly became crystal clear. The Netherlands leapfrog to 4 points, edging out Sweden by one point at the top of the standings but with a significantly better goal differential. Japan, which had snatched a valuable 2-2 draw against the Oranje in its opener by coming back twice thanks to Nakamura and Kamada in the closing minutes, remains on 1 point. Tunisia, already crushed 5-1 by the Swedes on the first matchday, sits last and is practically out of contention.
The match in Houston highlighted Sweden’s deep crisis, even though they had shown a completely different side against Tunisia. In their first group stage match, Graham Potter’s team dominated, thanks mainly to a brace by Ayari and goals from Isak and Gyokeres, offering a glimpse of a high-quality attacking machine. Against the Netherlands, however, that same attacking duo—among the most feared in the entire World Cup—was almost constantly neutralized by the opponents’ defense, posing a threat in flashes but never truly making an impact.
On the other side of the group, Tunisia is in the midst of utter chaos. The heavy opening-match defeat against Sweden had already led to the immediate dismissal of head coach Sabri Lamouchi, with the Tunisian Football Federation forced to intervene urgently after a furious argument that broke out after the match and continued all the way back to the hotel. Mondher Kebaier was initially appointed as interim coach, before the Federation entrusted the position to Hervé Renard, the French coach famous for winning the Africa Cup of Nations with two different national teams — Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015 — and for leading Saudi Arabia to a historic victory over Messi’s Argentina at Qatar 2022. For the North Africans, hopes of qualifying are now reduced to a nearly theoretical possibility.
