Van De Donk secures Netherlands first win of the tournament over Portugal – Group C

Former Arsenal midfielder Danielle van de Donk scored a stunning winner as reigning champions the Netherlands won a five goal thriller against Portugal to go top of Group C.

After drawing with Sweden in their Group C opener, the Dutch who were missing star striker Vivianne Miedema due to Covid-19 and a few other key players such as Jackie Groenen due to injury, still cruised into a 2-0 lead.

In an enthralling counter at Leigh Sports Village, Portugal like they did against Switzerland in their group opener, pulled off an outstanding comeback to level the score in the second half before the great dutch midfielder Van de Donk struck a superb dipping shot past Pereira.

In the opening ten minutes of the game Portugal were on top and it seemed like they had stunned the Netherlands. That was until the seventh minute when former Everton midfielder Damaris Egurrola was found unmarked in the box from a brilliant corner put in by Sherida Spitse. The midfielder scored a brilliant looping header to put her side into the lead.

And just nine minutes later the Dutch had a second. Another brilliant corner put in by Spitse took a couple of efforts before finding Stefanie van der Gragt whose effort was cleared poorly by Portugal. The ball then fell to what looked like Lieke Martens who fired a shot towards goal and Van Der Gragt bravely put her head on the line and fired the Netherlands 2-0 up inside 20 minutes.

In the 38th minute, Portugal were given a lifeline after they were awarded a penalty. Diana Silva looked to have slipped over in the process of going forward, but Dominique Janssen clipped the Portuguese forward and after consulting VAR, the referee correctly awarded the penalty kick. Carole Costa stepped up and gave her side a lifeline going into the second half.

Francisco Neto’s Portuguese side came firing out the blocks in the second half, and just two minutes after kicking off they had equalised.

A superb cross from the right hand side by goal scorer Costa, found D.Silva who powerfully headed the ball past Van Domselaar and gave her side and their fans something to really get excited about.

At 2-2, Jill Roord thought she had put the Netherlands back in the lead but her effort was chalked off due to Beerensteyn being offside in the build up.

But in the closing stages of the game there was no denying Danielle Van de Donk’s. Lieke Martens pulled the ball back to the 30-year-old central midfielder who powerfully drove the ball into the top corner to secure her side the win and send them top of the group with only one more group game to go.

Despite the Dutch winning the game, they still aren’t guaranteed to be going through to the quarter finals as Sweden also picked up a win against Switzerland in the earlier kick-off.

And because both Switzerland and Portugal still both sit on one point, it’s all to play for in the final games of Group C which take place on Sunday at 17:00 (BST).

Netherlands take on Switzerland while Sweden face Portugal.

We are in for an interesting climax to Group C as even though the Netherlands and Sweden hold the advantage, The Swiss or The Portuguese could still have the final say on who goes through to the quarter finals.

 

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