Davy Claassen and Denzel Dumfries scored the second half goals while the Netherlands came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Poland in an entertaining First Nations League match on Saturday.
And Memphis Depay, captain of the local team, missed a late penalty kick that would have secured all three points for his team when he hit the post, but the result sees the top of Group D in the Netherlands with seven points from its three matches, three points ahead of Belgium and Poland.
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The Poles, who were chasing their first-ever victory over their hosts in the Netherlands, took a 2-0 lead right after the first half as England’s Mate Kash and Piotr Zielinski scored, to the delight of their large crowd of traveling fans in the stadium.
But five frantic minutes in which Poland scored their second goal and the Netherlands responded quickly with a double kick that turned the match upside down before Depay missed the late opportunity to complete the return of the hosts.
The Netherlands host Wales on Tuesday in their last match in this international window, while Poland hosts Belgium on the same night.
“I missed it and unfortunately that can happen,” Depay told NOS. “Now it feels like a defeat. It was a difficult match. Poland was very compact and the spaces were very small.
“But we showed we fought in it. We still believed in ourselves, but today was tough.
“0-2 was a mental blow, but we coped with it well. It wasn’t our best match, but we kept fighting.”
Poland was without mascot Robert Lewandowski as the striker sat due to injury, but he took the lead in the 19th minute when Cash scored his first international goal.
He caught the ball outside the penalty area and shot low into the opposite lower corner.
The visitors doubled their advantage a few minutes into the second half when Przemyslav Frankowski overcame the offside trap and put his hand on Zelensky.
Holland came up with an immediate response even though Claassen finished inside the six-yard box. Dumfries scored three goals in five frantic minutes as he hit the ball into the net after Depay’s pass.
The hosts had an excellent opportunity to win it when Cash was judged to have touched the ball in the penalty area.
But Depay, who was poor all night, hit a penalty kick against the outside of the post, the first player to miss three penalties for the Netherlands.
