Unlike the Dutch national team, Netherlands U21’s kept their European Championship qualifying campaign on track with an excellent 1-0 win over Turkey.
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Jong Oranje got their campaign off to a great start last week with a 4-0 win over Cyprus, and Fred Grim’s side were once again in good form to see of Turkey in Istanbul on Monday evening.
After a tepid half hour, Vincent Janssen laid the ball off to Jean Paul Boetius on the edge of the box and the Basel winger curled an excellent curling strike into the bottom corner to put Netherlands 1-0 up.
Turkey barely threatened a well organised Dutch defence, but in the last fifteen minutes the home side created chances, with Mickey van der Haart having to deny Oğulcan Caglaya from close range, while Feyenoord winger Bilal Basacikoglu came close from distance.
Netherlands also had chances to seal the win, but Vincent Janssen shot just wide, while Mimoum Mahi wasted a great opportunity by shooting instead of passing to a well placed Janssen.
Netherlands held on to the lead, and now sit atop the group with six points. Top of the group is enough to qualify directly to the championship in Poland in 2017, and Netherlands will be hoping to move a step closer when Slovakia visit next month.
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