Netherlands vs Poland turned out to be a thriller. In an intriguing Nations League A match on Saturday, Davy Klaassen and Denzel Dumfries scored second-half goals as the Netherlands came back from two goals down to tie 2-2 with Poland.
Memphis Depay, the Dutch captain, missed a late penalty that would have given his team all three points, but the win puts the Dutch in first place in Group Four with seven points from three games, three clear of Belgium and Poland.
The Poles took a 2-0 lead immediately after halftime, with to goals from English-born Matty Cash and Piotr Zielinski, much to the joy of their large presence of travelling fans in the stadium.
Netherlands vs Poland: Davy Klaassen and Denzel Dumfries goals help Netherlands draw against Poland in a thriller
The game was turned on its head after a frantic five minutes in which Poland scored their second goal and the Netherlands soon rallied with a double strike, before Depay squandered a late chance to seal the home side’s comeback.
Netherlands host Wales on Tuesday in their final game of this international window, while Poland welcome Belgium on the same evening.
“I missed and unfortunately that can happen,” Depay told NOS. “Now it feels like a defeat. It was a difficult game. Poland were compact and the spaces were super small.
“But we have shown that we have fight in us. We continue to believe in ourselves, but today was difficult.
“The 0-2 was a mental blow, but we handled it well. It wasn’t our best game, but we kept fighting.”
Despite the absence of talisman Robert Lewandowski due to injury, Poland took the lead on 19 minutes when Cash scored his first international goal.
Outside the area, he picked up the ball and blasted low into the opposite bottom corner.
Przemyslaw Frankowski broke the offside trap and set on a tap-in for Zielinski just a few minutes into the second session, doubling the visitors’ lead.
The Netherlands came up with an instant response though, Klaassen finishing from inside the six-yard box. And Dumfries made it three goals in five frenetic minutes as he blasted the ball into the net after Depay’s pass.
The home side had an excellent chance to win it when Cash was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box.
But Depay, who was mostly poor all night, fired his penalty against the outside of the post, the first player ever to miss three spot-kicks for the Dutch
