The Netherlands battled to a 1-0 victory over Norway on Tuesday night in Rotterdam, to clinch World Cup qualification. The football match was played behind closed doors with coronavirus infections on the rise in the Netherlands and the Oranje were unable to rely on the backing of a noisy home crowd.
The home players appeared to be affected by the empty stadium. Memphis Depay squandered two identical close-range headed chances, each side of Arnaut Danjuma flashing a shot over when he should have struck the target, in a dull first half.
A similar pattern was followed in the second half until Tottenham’s Steven Bergwijn finally broke the deadlock with six minutes to go, shooting the ball into the roof of the net after receiving a pass from Danjuma.
Bergwijn turned provider in added time after the Dutch broke from a Norway corner, racing from his own half and laying the ball on a plate for Depay to add an undeserved shine to the scoreline. Watch football highlights of Netherlands victory over Norway in the World Cup Qualifiers.
The Norwegians failed to get any efforts on target and missed their injured talisman Erling Haaland. The Netherlands team was also without their coach Louis van Gaal, who fractured his hip falling off his bicycle on Sunday and sat in a wheelchair in the VIP area, high in the stands, communicating via mobile with his assistants on the bench.
