{"id":760893,"date":"2026-06-26T05:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T05:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760893\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T05:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T05:22:13","slug":"netherlands-power-to-win-over-tunisia-and-set-up-last-32-meeting-with-morocco-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760893\/","title":{"rendered":"Netherlands power to win over Tunisia and set up last-32 meeting with Morocco | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oranje bus had better get a move on. A comfortable victory over Tunisia<\/a> after being sent on their way by a record-equalling 12th own goal of the tournament and further strikes from Brian Brobbey and Jan Paul van Hecke sealed top spot in Group F for the Netherlands ahead of Japan.<\/p>\n

Their prize is avoiding a meeting with Brazil in the last 32, with Ronald Koeman\u2019s side now set for a mouthwatering showdown with Morocco<\/a> in Monterrey instead. Having arrived in southern Texas almost a month ago and already taken in games in Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, the specially converted double decker that has become a fixture at recent major tournaments now faces a journey of more than 1,000 miles before Monday\u2019s game in northern Mexico. It is a challenge that Koeman is clearly wary of.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point we got too comfortable but it won\u2019t happen in the next match,\u201d said the Netherlands<\/a> manager, whose side will stay at their training base in Kansas until 24 hours before they face Morocco. \u201cIt will be a big game with a lot of quality and we know them very well because many of their squad members play in the Eredivisie. There\u2019s always room for improvement and we will need to improve if we are going to go further in this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numbers for the Dutch supporters\u2019 traditional march to the stadium earlier in the day had been swelled by thousands of Kansas City locals who usually avoid wearing anything orange because it\u2019s the colour of the Chiefs\u2019 NFL rivals the Denver Broncos but had made an exception for one day only. Torrential rain and lightning storms brought an early end to the pre-match festivities as the fanzone had to be closed as a shelter-in-place order was issued at the venue usually known as the Arrowhead Stadium. That was lifted an hour before kick-off as the threat of more thunder and lightning fortunately dissipated, although the exposed bowl meant ponchos were still required to combat the elements during the second half.<\/p>\n

Koeman defended Frenkie de Jong from a media backlash after he responded to criticism by saying \u201cin reality, many people don\u2019t understand football\u201d after their 5-1 thrashing of Sweden<\/a> in the last match. Despite some injury concerns, the Barcelona midfielder ran the show again after he was included in a virtually full-strength side only missing Tottenham\u2019s Micky van de Ven and Crysencio Summerville after both picked up yellow cards in previous matches.<\/p>\n

Frenkie de Jong<\/a><\/p>\n

Herv\u00e9 Renard was watching the World Cup on holiday in Senegal when he got the call to replace Sabri Lamouchi following Tunisia\u2019s 5-1 thrashing<\/a> in their opener against Sweden. This was the Frenchman\u2019s 145th game as an international manager having previously taken charge of five different African countries, including two stints in charge of Zambia. The dashing 57-year-old who was in charge of Saudi Arabia when they shocked Argentina at the last World Cup<\/a> hinted beforehand that he could be tempted to stay with the Carthage Eagles beyond this tournament because \u201cI missed Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

Renard may have second thoughts after the way his side defended in the first 10 minutes. They should have been ahead inside 70 seconds when Isma\u00ebl Gharbi \u2013 one of four changes from their 4-0 hammering against Japan<\/a> \u2013 spurned a brilliant opportunity inside the Dutch area from Hazem Mastouri\u2019s pass. \u201cWe weren\u2019t good enough,\u201d was Renard\u2019s honest assessment\u200b.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands went ahead less than a minute later when Ellyes Skhiri comically diverted a dangerous cross from Denzel Dumfries past his own goalkeeper to equal the mark set in Qatar four years ago before the group stages have even been completed. Brobbey doubled the lead when an unmarked Virgil van Dijk picked out the similarly undetected Sunderland striker from a free-kick.<\/p>\n

The small number of Tunisia fans inside the stadium must have feared the worst at that point. But their side could have been back in it if Norwich\u2019s Anis Ben Slimane had directed his header a yard either side of Bart Verbruggen.<\/p>\n

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With Japan being held by Sweden at half-time, the Netherlands could be forgiven for taking their foot off the gas. Dumfries almost had a third at the start of the second half when his goalbound volley was blocked.<\/p>\n

Jan-Paul van Hecke (right) flicks home the Netherlands\u2019 third. Photograph: Fran\u00e7ois Nel\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Mastouri\u2019s header from Hannibal Mejbri\u2019s corner was followed by news that Daezen Maeda had given Japan the lead in Dallas. Any nerves were swiftly followed by Van Hecke\u2019s header from a corner to respire the two-goal cushion, with cheers greeting Anthony Elanga\u2019s equaliser for Sweden<\/a> when the score was flashed up on the big screen.<\/p>\n

A delightful chip from Tijjani Reijnders that struck the crossbar would have put the icing on the cake for the Netherlands before the substitute Memphis Depay almost connected with a spectacular acrobatic effort late on. But Koeman knows that a battle-hardened Morocco will present a much stiffer test than sorry Tunisia, who head home with a goal difference of minus 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oranje bus had better get a move on. A comfortable victory over Tunisia after being sent on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-760893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}