In Poland, the Netherlands had the chance to qualify early for next year’s World Cup. But against a determined home side, the Elftal were too harmless and could not manage more than a draw.
In Poland, the Netherlands had the opportunity to become the fourth team from Europe to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico with a win. But the Poles, who are in second place in qualifying group G, still had a glimmer of hope for direct qualification.
Poland’s coach Jan Urban made four changes for this match after the 2-0 win against Lithuania in October. First, regular goalkeeper Skorupski was missing and was replaced by Wolfsburg’s Grabara. Wisniewski, Bednarek, and Slisz were also not in the squad. Kedziora, Ziolkowski, and Zalewski started instead.
Oranje coach Ronald Koeman only had to do without Dumfries in the starting eleven after the 4-0 win over Finland. Leipzig’s Geertruida started in his place.
Kaminski scores through Verbruggen’s legs
The game started without a feeling-out phase. Poland began with a lot of offensive momentum and Zalewski had a huge chance to give the Netherlands an early shock in the 2nd minute. But the Atalanta Bergamo man was too surprised and, unmarked in front of goal from just five meters out, fired the ball over the bar (2nd minute).
The Netherlands then took control of the game and kept the ball deep in the opponent’s half. However, there was no real gap in the deep block of the Poles, who had to bring on Kapustka for the injured Szymanski after just 13 minutes – he was celebrating his 50th international cap that day. A shot from Malen was the most dangerous action from Koeman’s team.
The hosts punished the Oranje for not being more forceful just a few minutes before the break. The in-form Cologne player Kaminski was sent on his way perfectly by Lewandowski in one of several counterattacks and scored the 1-0 (43′) through Verbruggen’s legs.
Quick response from Depay
However, the hosts’ joy at their somewhat fortunate lead was not to last long. Shortly after the break, the Elftal responded quickly. First, Malen almost failed miserably with a header against Grabara, who was simply in the right place, but Depay buried the rebound to make it 1-1 (47′). Lewandowski almost responded immediately (49′), but failed to get past Verbruggen. However, the equalizer did not conjure up a new offensive spirit for the Elftal. Instead, both teams neutralized each other and at times the game even lost momentum. Because pyrotechnics were thrown onto the pitch from the stands, Italian referee Maurizio Mariani interrupted the game for a few minutes, which the teams used for a short drink break (59′).
Even after that, however, neither team was able to generate any real momentum. Instead, the ball often ran through the respective defensive lines without really creating any gaps. It took until the 82nd minute for Skoras to fail again with a curling shot at Verbruggen. And even in the six minutes of added time due to the interruption, there was hardly any danger.
As a result, the Oranje missed out on early World Cup qualification, while Poland retained a glimmer of hope. Now, on the final matchday of World Cup qualifying on Monday (8:45 p.m.), both teams will once again be playing for everything. Poland would have to win in Malta and make up a 13-goal deficit to overtake the Netherlands in the table and qualify directly. The Elftal, on the other hand, will want to prevent that from happening against Lithuania.
