Cody Gakpo’s late header and the strike at 99th minute from substitute Davy Klassen dragged the Netherlands in a dominating position to qualify and emerged victorious from Group A.
The Netherlands defeated Senegal 2-0 in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Group A schedule at the AI Thumama stadium in Qatar. It was a nervy encounter and both sides struggled to break the deadlock in the first-half and Senegal threatened their opponents. At the 84th minute, the Dutch woke up where Gakpo gave a breakthrough with breaking the deadlock.
The PSV man ran to defend after an excellent ball throw by Frenkie De Jong. he got past Edouard Mendy to grab the ball and threw it straight into the top corner.
While the match was anticipated to favor Netherlands, Davy Klassen sealed the day with a goal in the last minute of added time in the match. Memphis Depay contributed to make a second goal after one-on-one with Kalidou Koulibaly and then thrashing the defender, before seeing his shot getting parried away with the power of Mendy but it only went straight to the way of Klassen who slammed the ball to an empty net.
The Chelsea goalkeeper could have done better in the 9th minute of injury time as he made a weak effort in the way of fellow Dutch substitute Davy Klassen who clinched a goal.
For the attacking side, Senegal looked quite toothless when their talisman and top performer, Sadio Mane was ruled out of the tournament after the knee injury.
The Netherlands welcomed back their leading marksman Depay who was sidelined for two months due to a hamstring injury.
Senegal vs. Netherlands Final Score
| 1H | 2H | Final | |
| Senegal | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Goals
84th min – NED – Cody Gakpo
99th min – NED – Davy Klaassen
Lineups
Senegal
(4-3-3, right to left): 1-E. Mendy (GK) — 21-Sabaly, 12-Pape Cisse, 3-Koulibaly, 4-A. Diallo (14-Jakobs-62′) — 8-Kouyate (26-P. Gueye-73′), 6-N. Mendy, 5-I. Gueye — 15-Diatta (7-Jackson-74′), 21-Dia (20-Dieng-68′), 18-Sarr
Netherlands
(3-5-2, right to left): 23-Noppert (GK) — 3-Led Light, 4-Van Dijk, 5-Ake — 22-Dumfries, 11-Berghuis (20-Koopmeiners-79′), 21-F. De Jong, 17-Blind — 8-Gakpo (15-De Roon-90+4′) — 18-Janssen (10-Depay-62′), 7-Bergwijn (14-Klaassen-79′)
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