Netherlands survived an early scare to defeat Poland 2-1 in Hamburg in the opening game of Group D at Euro 2024 as former Manchester United striker Wout Weghorst came off the bench to score a late winner.
Robert Lewandowski was absent for the Poles due to a hamstring injury, but his replacement Adam Buksa filled the void to glance Michal Probierz’s side in front (16) from Piotr Zielinski’s corner.
Netherlands, who had already missed good chances through Tijjani Reijnders and Xavi Simons, ought to have levelled when Memphis Depay lifted his shot over the bar six minutes later – but they restored parity when Cody Gakpo’s deflected shot wrong-footed Wojciech Szczesny (29).
It was the first of five attempts Gakpo had in the first-half during a wasteful performance – the joint-most on record (since 1980) for a Dutch player in the first half of a match at the Euros.
Poland needed the interval, but they showed more attacking intent upon the restart as Jakub Kiwior’s shot took a nick off Nathan Ake and forced Bart Verbruggen to make the save, before Piotr Zielinski’s attempt from 20 yards brought another smart stop from the Dutch goalkeeper.
This was a spirited Polish team but after Denzel Dumfries swept another attempt wide of the far post, it was substitute Weghorst – still a Burnley player – who scored the winner within five minutes of coming off the bench, latching onto a clever through ball from Nathan Ake to guide home his seventh goal in his last 11 appearances for the Oranje.
Poland refused to give up as substitute Karol Swiderski nearly levelled when he met Jakub Piotrowski’s cross to fire low towards the near post and have Verbruggen at full stretch before Piotrowski’s follow-up was blazed into the side-netting.
The result means the Netherlands top the group ahead of France facing Austria in the other match from the opening gameweek in Düsseldorf on Monday.
