Cody Gakpo has delivered a special performance with his goal in the World Cup match against Qatar (2-0). The PSV player, who made the 1-0 in the Al Bayt Stadium on Tuesday in the 26th minute, followed in the footsteps of players such as Wesley Sneijder and Cristiano Ronaldo with his third goal of the tournament.
Gakpo is the first Dutchman ever to be accurate in all three group matches at a World Cup. Extra special is that he also made it 1-0 against Senegal and Ecuador. He is the second player ever to achieve that at a World Cup, after Italy’s Alessandro Altobelli in 1986.
The fact that Gakpo scored against Qatar with the right also puts him in a special row. At this World Cup he also scored with the left (Ecuador) and with the head (Senegal). The only other Dutchman to score with left, right and head at a World Cup was Wesley Sneijder in 2010.
At the previous World Cup in Russia there were three players who achieved that: Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Edinson Cavani. Apart from Gakpo, no one has yet succeeded at this World Cup.
The Orange team closes the World Cup group stage unbeaten for the fifth time in a row
Gakpo will also go down in the books as the fourth Orange player ever to score three World Cup matches in a row. Johan Neeskens was the first in 1974, followed by Bergkamp in 1994 and Sneijder in 2010.
The other goal of the Orange on Tuesday came in the 49th minute in the name of Frenkie de Jong. Due to the 2-0 victory, the Netherlands closed the group stage of a World Cup for the sixth time in a row as number one, and was undefeated for the fifth time in a row.
The last time the Dutch lost a group match at the World Cup was in 1994, against Belgium (1-0).
