Thaindian News

Amsterdam, Sep 8 (IANS) World Cup runners-up the Netherlands opened their World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win over Turkey here.

After the early disappointing Euro 2012 exit, Louis van Gaal took over as coach of the Dutch national football team from Bert van Marwijk, reports Xinhua.

He started with a 4-2 loss in a friendly against Belgium in August and decided for some major changes in his squad for the first World Cup qualification matches against Turkey and Hungary.

Against Turkey van Gaal had several surprises in his line-up. He began with Robin van Persie as central striker, although he expressed his confidence in Klaas-Jan Huntelaar before the previous game against Belgium.

He also preferred goalkeeper Tim Krul of Newcastle United instead of regular first-choice Maarten Stekelenburg of AS Roma. The team contained two debutants, Daryl Janmaat and Jordy Clasie of Feyenoord.

The new inexperienced line-up was not able to put the Turks under pressure. On the contrary, the visitors had the initiative. However, the Netherlands took the lead in the 17th minute with van Persie heading a Wesley Sneijder corner Friday.

Turkey created some chances to equalise but failed to score. Omer Toprak’s header hit the cross bar on the stroke of halftime.

In the first quarter after the break Turkey had the initiative but after that the Netherlands took control. Luciano Narsingh secured the victory with a goal in injury time.

Next Tuesday the Netherlands meet Hungary in Budapest. The Hungarians won their first match in Group D 5-0 against Andorra.