As expected, hosts Qatar did not score their first point in the World Cup against the Netherlands either and were eliminated without a point. Previously, only one host had been eliminated from their home World Cup in the preliminary round, and no one was more unsuccessful than Qatar.
The Netherlands have also successfully mastered their tenth group stage at a World Cup, while Qatar is the weakest host in World Cup history. In the final group game, the Oranje selection with former Bayern coach Louis van Gaal came to a lackluster and unspectacular 2-0 (1-0) in front of 66,784 spectators and ended the preliminary round with seven points. In the round of 16 on Friday it is against England, the USA, Iran or Wales.
World Cup hosts Qatar, whose end was already certain before kick-off, lost their third group game after losing 2-0 to Ecuador and 3-1 to Senegal and bowed out without a point in their first appearance at the World Cup. The team went into the tournament as Asian champions. The state had invested a lot of money in building the team since the World Cup was awarded twelve years ago.
Prior to Qatar, only South Africa were eliminated as hosts in the group stage in 2010. The “Bafana bafana” had landed at least one win and scored four points. Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven scored the 1-0 for the Netherlands for the third time in the third game (26th minute). Only the Italian Alessandro Altobelli had previously managed to do this in 1986. Frenkie de Jong (49th) followed up after the break.
At the beginning, an amazingly lively game developed, in which the hosts did not hide and made an effort to say an honorable farewell. But it got tough relatively quickly. Although the Dutch controlled the game and had the ball most of the time, they had too little movement in the game and too little creativity. Significant: After the best move to date, de Jong shot teammate Davy Klaassen from 18 meters. Depay’s side kick that followed was nice to look at, but in the end it was useless art because the striker had aimed far too high.
The icebreaker was once again Gakpo, who held his own against three opponents after a one-two with the ex-Bremer Klaassen. The 23-year-old is the first Dutchman to score in all of his first three World Cup games. The hosts held out bravely even after the change in the Al Bayt stadium, which was not sold out. Nevertheless, the game was quickly decided. A botched header saved Depay from Qatar’s good goalkeeper Barsham Meshaal, but De Jong tipped the rebound into the net. The supposed 3-0 by Steven Berghuis, who came on as a substitute two minutes earlier, was disallowed because of a previous handball by Gakpo. In stoppage time, Berghuis hit the crossbar.
