Cody Gakpo and Frenkie De Jong could have been playing for Manchester United if Eric ten Hag had got his way - now the pair are spearheading Holland’s bid for the World Cup.
Gakpo, the 23-year-old who is being taught the goalscorer’s art at PSV Eindhoven by former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, kept himself in the frame for the Golden Boot by scoring for a third successive match.
And De Jong, the Barcelona midfielder, who the Reds started chasing following Ten Hag’s arrival as manager last summer, also got on the scoresheet as Louis van Gaal’s side secured top spot in Group A.
United wouldn’t pay the £40 million it would have taken to buy Gakpo, with Leeds also seriously interested. It will cost both clubs a lot more now - especially if he returns from Qatar as top scorer. Van Nistelrooy started working with Gakpo in the PSV academy. Now he is his senior coach.
There was more than a passing resemblance to the man who scored 150 goals during his time at Old Trafford in the way Gakpo swapped passes with Davy Klassen in the 26th minute to elegantly glide forward and find the bottom corner from 18 yards.
De Jong sealed Qatar’s fate four minutes after half-time when he fired into the roof of the net after Memphis Depay’s close-range effort had been brilliantly saved by Meshaal Barsham.
The midfielder was Ten Hag’s No 1 target - but refused to give up on the small fortune Barcelona owed him in deferred wages. Van Gaal’s delight at going through to the knock-out stages was tempered when a journalist described watching Holland as being like “grinding your teeth.”
Van Gaal hit back: “Well that’s disappointing, I think, but I don’t agree with you. I think everyone would be rather proud that we’re progressing to the next round and I think people know why you’re asking these questions. I don’t think things are as bad as you say.
“Of course you can give your opinion. But I don’t agree with you and I’m not going to expand on that. I think you have a different perspective to me. Why don’t you write down ‘it’s terribly boring.’ If you think it’s boring why don’t you go home?”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino was in the posh seats to see Qatar make history by officially becoming the worst team to ever host the World Cup.
One goal and zero points isn’t much of a return on a £200 billion investment. Coach Felix Sanchez said: “Talking about statistics you can use them as you want.
“The reality is we are a country with 6,000 players so this was a likely situation. We never thought to set a goal of getting to the round of 16 or the quarter-finals. We wanted to see what we could do.”
