Netherlands take Belarus win to France game

The Netherlands booked a comfortable 4-1 win over Belarus in 2018 World Cup qualifying Group A on Friday in the De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam.

After the 1-1 draw in Sweden in September, the Dutch needed a win against Belarus, which had drawn 0-0 against France in the first tie. Coach Danny Blind had lined up almost the same team as against Sweden, but he favored Maarten Stekelenburg as goalkeeper over Jeroen Zoet and Rick Karsdorp debuted as right back for injured Daryl Janmaat.

The tandem Karsdorp-Quincy Promes worked well on the right side and the Dutch created several opportunities from the start. In the 15th minute Promes opened the scoring, when he profited from sloppy defending by the visitors. He scored his first goal in 15 internationals. In the 31th minute the Spartak Moscow forward also produced the second goal, when he hit home after a deflected Dutch corner.

With the 2-0 score the Dutch gave away the initiative and Belarus created some chances before half-time. An attempt by Mikhail Gordeychuk went beside the post and Sergei Kornilenko also went close. Belarus continued their good period in the second half and Aleksey Rios scored in the 47th minute from a Kornilenko cross.

The Netherlands seemed to have lost track, but came back into the match and restored their momentum of the first half. After Vincent Janssen hit the post Davy Klaassen scored from the rebound in the 55th minute and with a smashing strike from outside the penalty area Janssen made it 4-1 in the 64th minute. The Dutch could have extended the scoring, but Georginio Wijnaldum hit the post.

With the win, the Netherlands came on four points in Group A, together with France, which beat Bulgaria 4-1 in Paris, and Sweden, which defeated Luxembourg 1-0 in Luxembourg. On Monday the Netherlands play France in Amsterdam, Belarus host Luxembourg and Sweden play at home to Bulgaria. Endite