In the first match of Group D at Euro 2024, Netherlands overcame an early scare to defeat Poland 2-1 in Hamburg. Former Manchester United striker Wout Weghorst came off the bench to score a late winner with his first touch.
Due to a thigh injury, Robert Lewandowski was unable to play for the Poles. However, Adam Buksa stood in for him, glancing Michal Probierz’s side in front (16) from Piotr Zielinski’s corner.
Six minutes later, Memphis Depay hoisted his shot over the bar, giving the Netherlands, who had earlier squandered fine chances through Tijjani Reijnders and Xavi Simons, the advantage. However, Wojciech Szczesny (29), who was wrong-footed by a deflected shot from Cody Gakpo, restored parity.
Gakpo wasted a lot of opportunities in the first half of the encounter, making five attempts in all, the joint-most for a Dutch player in the first half of a competition since 1980.
Poland needed the break, but came out firing in the second half. Piotr Zielinski’s attempt from twenty yards out was met by another deft stop by Dutch keeper Bart Verbruggen, after Jakub Kiwior’s shot had taken a nick off Nathan Ake.
Although the Polish team showed determination, Weghorst, a substitute who is still with Burnley, scored the game’s winning goal five minutes after entering the game. He did so by grabbing a deft through pass from Ake and scoring his seventh goal in his last 11 Oranje appearances.
The Netherlands held on to send the tens of thousands of “Oranje” supporters at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion into raptures, but Poland refused to give up as substitute Karol Swiderski nearly levelled the score after meeting Jakub Piotrowski’s cross to fire low towards the near post and have Verbruggen at full stretch. Piotrowski’s follow-up was blazed into the side-netting.
As a result, the Netherlands top the group, one point ahead of France, who play Austria in the other game from the first gameweek on Monday in Düsseldorf.
Netherlands‘ forward Cody Gakpo: “It was a tough match, a tough opponent. They scored first, so it was a little bit more difficult, but we created a lot of good opportunities, good chances. We have to be more clinical. Overall, we performed pretty well.
“We have to analyse the game and see where we could hurt them more and then take that to the next one. I think it’s a strength of our team that, even though for some it’s the first time, they [the younger players] performed well.”
Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman: “Wout Weghorst was able to play and he has added value to the team, he has a different way of behaving and that is what we needed.
“This should have been 4-1 in favour of us after one hour, we played very well but couldn’t finish opportunities. The Polish squad were nearly able to find the net themselves but we were lucky and scored a second goal.
“We have good qualities, the team performed well. After 60 minutes we should have been able to score more. Cody Gakpo played very well. He was dangerous and we should give him the ball more often.”
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