Netherlands are now top of the World Cup qualifying Group G after an excellent 6-1 win over Turkey. Memphis Depay was the star with a hattrick.
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Louis van Gaal made three changes from the win over Montenegro with Virgil van Dijk, Daley Blind and Steven Bergwijn coming into the starting line-up. Tyrell Malacia and Matthijs de Ligt dropped to the bench, while Cody Gakpo is injured.
Netherlands got off to the perfect start as Davy Klaassen found the bottom corner in the first minute after a lovely 1-2 with Memphis Depay. After 15 minutes, it was 2-0 as Memphis latched onto a lovely flick from Klaassen to fire in a second.
Klaassen was then brought down in the box after 38 minutes and Memphis scored a cheeky penalty to add a third. It was his 32nd Oranje goal, moving him above Wesley Sneijder as 10th in the list of all time Netherlands top scorers.
Before the break, things went from bad to worse for Turkey when Çağlar Söyüncü was shown his second yellow card. Feyenoord midfielder Orkun Kokcu started the clash for the Turks but was taken off at the break.
Van Gaal decided to give Frenkie de Jong some rest for the second half and Teun Koopmeiners came onto the pitch.
Netherlands continued to dominate but Justin Bijlow was called into action to make a good save to deny Turkey from a free-kick. Then in the 54th minute, Memphis secured his hattrick after a clever move involving Berghuis and Bergwijn. The goal also put Memphis level with Johan Cruyff, who netted 33 times in Oranje.
Van Gaal then brought on a number of substitutes including Gusus Til and Devyne Rensch, who was allowed to make his debut for the national team.
In the 80th minute, Til netted his first Netherlands goal with a lovely finish after a great through ball from Koopmeiners. Donyell Malen then made it 6-0 after a fine assist from Rensch.
After a poor pass from Bijlow, Turkey pulled one back in injury time through Under, but that was nothing but a consolation.
Netherlands go top of the group with four games left to go. They are level with Norway but have a much superior goal difference, while Turkey are two points behind. In October, Netherlands face Latvia and Gibraltar.
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What a revenge. If we play like this I don’t know what else stopping us to win the WC. This is the much awaited Oranje since Koeman departure. Loving klassen back kick assist for Depay goal.
What a fabulous perfomance from the Dutch!
I’m sure there will be naysayers and cynics on here who point out that Turkey was very poor (and has been since June). There’s truth in that, but we should give credit where it’s due especially seeing as we tend to rip the team apart when they fail.
It was a high pressure game and the team came up big. The pressing and combination play was superb. Klaassen and Memphis played out of their minds. De Vrij had Yilmaz in his pocket all 1st half, Turkey didn’t get a sniff. Well done all around!
That was an absolute joy to watch. And yes, some will say what they will about Turkey’s current form, but their form is why it ended up 6-1 and could have been much worse had a few more shots been not been straight at Cakir. This kind of quality performance from Oranje beats a lot of better opponents.
It is too bad the clean sheet was not kept intact and I hope v.Dijk is not significantly injured because of it. Even that last-second blemish cannot put a damper on how massive this result is. This match solidified both a new coach’s confidence in his players, and their confidence in him as well. They are going to want to do this again and again and again. It also put Oranje into first place and in full control of their Qatar 2022 destiny (it actually added to the goal differential over Norway when they played Gibraltar today!)… and perhaps today struck a bit of fear into opponents to come. Results like this against non-minnows do not go unnoticed.