Netherlands overcomes Senegal in the final: goals by Gakpo and Klaasen

Goals by the class of ’99 and the Ajax striker were decisive.

A tight match between Senegal and the Netherlands, the second in Group A that saw Ecuador’s victory over hosts Qatar on Sunday. The orange team found victory in the final minutes of the match, thanks to a great header by Psv’s class ’99 Cody Gakpo and the final seal by Davy Klaasen.

The first half was characterized by many mistakes on the part of both teams, especially the Netherlands, which wasted a couple of limpid chances, the clearest being one with Frenkie De Jong who, alone in front of Edouard Mendy, missed his shot.

In the second half, it was Senegal that came close to taking the lead on more than one occasion: the rookie, not only at a World Cup but even in the national team, Andries Noppert, always responded. In the 86th minute the Netherlands went ahead, thanks to a great aerial break by the Psv player, on a ball of his own from De Jong, who had been very underwhelming up to that point.

The African formation threw itself into the search for an equalizer but, despite the eight minutes of added time, failed to find the 1-1 goal; rather, it was the Netherlands that doubled the score with the newly arrived Ajax player. Van Gaal’s Orange thus move, momentarily, to the top of Group A in the company of Ecuador.