Netherlands warmed up for the World Cup qualifier with Luxembourg next Friday by hammering Ivory Coast 5-0 at De Kuip.

After the 2-1 victory over Morocco in midweek, eight changes were made to the starting line-up, with only Joel Veltman, Vincent Janssen and Memphis Depay keeping their places.

Ivory Coast started brightly but after 13 minutes Daley Blind stormed forward to win a corner. Memphis took it and found an unmarked Veltman who headed in unchallenged from close range. It was the Ajax defender’s first goal for the national team.

The African side came back at Netherlands, though, and were unlucky not to be level when Maxwell Cornet saw his header come back off the post. Marc Wilmots side dominated the play, but ten minutes before the break Kevin Strootman played an excellent ball over the top for Janssen to chase and the Tottenham striker was brought down by goalkeeper Sangare to earn a penalty. Arjen Robben stepped up to cooly find the top corner and make it 2-0.

It was 3-0 just before the break as Robben played a one-two with Memphis before curling a cross to the back post for Veltman to tap in his second of the game.

Early in the second half, Janssen should have made it 4-0 but dragged a shot wide from only a few yards out, while Arjen Robben sent a shot just wide and Memphis curled an effort which was tipped onto the bar. Netherlands bossed the play and eventually on 69 minutes, Janssen picked out Klaassen to fire in the fourth goal.

Wesley Sneijder then came off the bench to earn his 130th national team cap, equaling Edwin van der Sar’s record. Janssen then put the seal on a great night for Oranje as he tipped in a fifth after Georginio Wijnaldum saw his shot parried.

Cillessen pulled off a stunning save late on to deny Cyriac as Netherlands kept their clean sheet and booked their biggest win since a 6-0 victory over Latvia in 2014. Dick Advocaat will now come in with Ruud Gullit to officially start their tenure in charge as Netherlands prepare for the must win match against Luxembourg in Rotterdam on Friday night.




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