Without Memphis, Netherlands fight back to beat Norway in friendly | OneFootball

The Netherlands defeated Norway 2-1 this Friday in Amsterdam in a friendly in which both national teams were missing some of their main players, such as Erling Haaland in the case of the Norwegians, but which served as preparation for the 2026 World Cup.

The ‘Oranje’ were without Memphis Depay and Frenkie De Jong, both injured, while the Nordic side took the field without Martin Odegaard, who has been dealing with physical problems in recent weeks, and without top scorer Haaland, who was rested.

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Tribute

There was a tribute to the memory of Johan Cruyff, who died on March 24, 2016. The crowd at the stadium that bears his name gave the Dutch idol a standing ovation in the 14th minute of the match, in reference to the shirt number worn by the legendary Ajax and Barcelona player, three days after the 10th anniversary of his death.

How the match unfolded

On the field, it was the visitors who opened the scoring, thanks to a brilliant individual play by Andreas Schjeldrup, who dribbled past Denzel Dumfries and finished with class into goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen’s left corner (24').

The Dutch reacted quickly and equalized with a headed goal by center back Virgil van Dijk (35').

In the second half, Tijjani Reijnders (51') scored the winner for the home side.

End of Norway’s streak

The result brought an end to Norway’s 13-match unbeaten run, after the team had won all eight rounds of the European qualifiers for the World Cup.

“At times, we played very well, I liked the match. Norway are a top-level national team, they beat Italy twice during the qualifiers. We knew how to play with intensity, we were the better team and created the better scoring chances,” celebrated Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman in comments to broadcaster NOS.

With some of the biggest names from both teams absent, a 20-year-old stole the spotlight at the Johan Cruyff Arena: Kees Smit, who was named the best player of the 2025 Under-19 European Championship, made his debut for the Dutch national team, taking another step in his development.

With content from AFP*

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.