ASTANA – After trailing 0:2 to the Dutch during their game at Astana Arena on Oct. 10, the Kazakhs managed to score in the last minute of added time to have a consolation goal.
Ulan Konysbaev holds off Kenny Tete as Kazakhstan struggle to contain their visitors. Photo: Uefa.com
The game started in an aggressive manner, as Yuri Logvinenko was shown a yellow card in the first minute for a bad foul. Four minutes later, the Dutch struck back with a foul of their own as Daley Blind took Bauyrzhan Islamkhan off his feet. Islamkhan 10 minutes later had to leave the field with an injury.
In the 33th minute, Georginio Wijnaldum scored the first goal of the game when he left-footed the ball from outside the box and nailed it to the bottom right corner past 22 year-old Kazakh goal keeper Stas Pokatilov.
In the second half, Wesley Sneijder doubled the score in the 50th minute to give the Netherlands a comfortable 2:0 lead. The Dutch played a well-controlled match against the hosts, with everything seeming to go according to plan even as the Dutch players were rooting for Turkey to win their crucial match against the Czech Republic, underway at the same time in Prague.
For the Netherlands, the match against Kazakhstan was a must-win, as the Dutch are on the verge of being ousted from the Euro 2016. With Iceland and the Czech Republic already in the tournament, the Dutch needed the Turks to beat the Czechs and to beat the Kazakhs themselves to keep their hopes alive. With the 2:0 Turkish victory on their side, with one game to go, the Dutch need to beat the Czechs and hope the Turks lose to Iceland on Oct. 13 to have a shot at making it to the Euro 2016. The last time the Oranje failed to qualify for a major tournament was the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
In the last minute of the match, Islambek Kuat managed to score to make it 1:2 for his team, but it was too late.
After 95 minutes of play, the Dutch dominated with 61 percent of ball possession and 15 attempts on goal.
The next match for Kazakhstan is on Oct. 13 against Latvia. Kazakhstan has only two points in Group A and will have to muster up the will to win for the next major tournament now, as they have no chances of qualifying for this one.
