Daniëlle van de Donk became a great point saver for the Netherlands when she decided the meeting in Leigh with her 3-2 goal.
“I am very happy with my goal, especially for the sake of the team because we fought very hard. I do not score so often. After my goal, with my teammates over me, everyone shouted that I really deserved it,” she said according to the Dutch federation. .
Otherwise, it was Portugal who opened best. Tatiana Pinto missed a great opportunity and Ana Borges had a ball in the net which was blown off for offside.
Maybe the alarm clock that the Netherlands, without the co-infected star duo Jackie Groenen and Vivianne Miedema, needed. Because then it went fast. First, Damaris Egurrola nodded in 1-0 on a corner and after another corner, midfielder Stefanie van der Gragt ruthlessly threw herself forward and threw in the 2-0 goal.
Then maybe it did not hurt so much that she received a kick in the face that left her bloody. van der Gragt was able to continue and was close to expanding shortly afterwards, but now it was Portugal’s turn to wake up.
Retrieved 0-2 disadvantage
Midfielder Carole Costa reduced the deficit in the 36th minute and shortly after the half-time break it was leveled. Penalty fixer Diana Silva knotted in beautifully 2-2 when Carole Costa invited back with an exquisite post.
The Netherlands had a ball in goal when the goal scorer in the premiere against Sweden (1-1), Jill Roord, found the right one. However, the goal was ruled out after a long VAR check, due to a narrow offside.
Instead, it was Lyon’s Daniëlle van de Donk who would step forward. After just over an hour of play, she received the ball just outside the penalty area and screwed in 3-2 no matter how elegant. An early candidate for the tournament’s goals.
“If we succeed in scoring another goal at 2-0, we have no problems. We make it so difficult for ourselves completely unnecessarily. You have to have a little luck in a tournament like this and it does not always have to be beautiful. final, this is good, but we prefer to do it by playing good football “, says van de Donk.
Same point as Sweden
It would not be much more fun than that. Portugal did not manage to threaten again and the Netherlands’ victory was never threatened from there.
With one group game round left, the Netherlands and Sweden are at the top of Group C with four points each. Switzerland and Portugal have one point each.
On Sunday, the Netherlands will face Switzerland while Sweden will face Portugal.