Wolfsburg’s striker Wout Weghorst has made a perfect start to the European Football Championship with the Netherlands. The 28-year-old scored the first European Championship goal of his career in a 3-2 (1-0) win against Ukraine on Sunday evening in Amsterdam and celebrated a successful return to the big football stage with the Oranje team. In an exciting game in front of 16,000 spectators, Weghorst scored 2-0 in the 59th minute after Georginio Wijnaldum (52nd) had put Elftal in the lead. Andrej Jarmolenko (75th) and Roman Yaremtschuk (79th) equalized again for Ukraine, but Denzel Dumfries (85th) let the Dutch cheer in the end.
The hosts, who are back at a major tournament for the first time since the 2014 World Cup and who had been poorly prepared for the European Championship, got off to a furious start in the game, which was flawlessly led by the German referee Felix Brych. They had numerous chances in the first half – but some missed them miserably. Especially the later goalscorer Dumfries failed several times.
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Wijnaldum showed how to do it shortly after the restart and took the lead. Now the last fetters were released. Just six minutes later, Weghorst followed up. In anticipation of a certain victory, the momentum for the Dutch flagged – and suddenly the game tipped over. Jarmolenko scored with a wonderful shot that gave the Ukrainians a boost. Four minutes later, Yaremchuk headed the passivity of the home side, who hit back again and celebrated a happy ending.
Before that, in the first game in Group C, Austria beat the newcomer North Macedonia 3-1. (dpa)
