HAMBURG, Germany — Wout Weghorst scored inside two minutes of coming into the sport instead to safe a 2-1 win for the Netherlands in opposition to Poland of their Group D opener in Hamburg.
Weghorst, who scored simply two targets in 31 appearances for Manchester United whereas on mortgage at Outdated Trafford through the 2022-23 season, changed the ineffective Memphis Depay within the 82nd minute as coach Ronald Koeman tried one final throw of the cube after seeing the Dutch miss a collection of probabilities.
Though Weghorst’s time at United proved unsuccessful in entrance of objective, the Hoffenheim ahead took his current tally to seven targets in 11 appearances for his nation when he broke away from his marker to information Nathan Ake’s cross past Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny with a left-footed shot from ten yards.
With Poland lacking their injured striker Robert Lewandowski, the Dutch had been favourites to win this sport, however the 1988 European champions struggled to beat Michal Probierz’s workforce. The Poles opened the scoring when Adam Buksa, Lewandowski’s substitute, scored with a header from Piotr Zielinski’s Sixteenth-minute nook.
Lens ahead Buksa, a former New England Revolution striker, escaped the eye of Denzel Dumfries on the close to submit to move previous keeper Bart Verbruggen and provides Poland the lead.
However the Dutch fought again with Virgil van Dijk forcing a nice save from Szczęsny with a volleyed shot earlier than Cody Gakpo equalised with a deflected shot on 29 minutes.
Liverpool ahead Gakpo then missed a golden probability to place the Dutch forward on 42 minutes when he shot over the bar from 3 yards out. Either side created, and wasted, quite a lot of probabilities within the second half earlier than Koeman made his late change by introducing Weghorst.
The ahead repaid Koeman nearly immediately by netting the winner, which supplies the Netherlands the right begin to the Euro 2024 marketing campaign.