In the 81st minute, a substitute – a hero in the 83rd.
Wout Weghorst ensured the Netherlands had a good start to the European Championship in Germany.
The substitute scored the decisive 2–1 against Poland in Hamburg.
Without a point with injured Robert Lewandowski?
Not then.
Poland showed in the premiere against the Netherlands that goals can come from players other than the team's biggest star.
Now it was substitute Adam Buksa who headed in 1–0 after 16 minutes, when he was ahead of Virgil Van Dijk and jumped higher than Denzel Dumfries.
This time, however, it was not enough.
The Netherlands – admittedly with some luck – equalised after nearly half an hour when Cody Gakpo's shot changed direction off defender Bartosz Salamon's leg and caught goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny off guard.
After the goal, it was mostly the Netherlands who controlled the match, and in the end, in the 83rd minute, substitute Wout Weghorst scored the winning goal.
He had then been on the pitch for two minutes.
It should have been 4–1 to us after an hour. We played very well but couldn't score, says the Netherlands' national coach Ronald Koeman according to the AFP news agency.
The match was preceded by unrest during the Netherlands' fan march to the arena.
The police reported that a man, armed with an axe, attacked football fans and police officers. An eyewitness told Hamburger Morgenpost that the man clearly targeted a group of people when he came running out of a kebab restaurant, shouting.
The police first used pepper spray and then warning shots to stop the man. The man was seriously injured after being shot by the police. The man is believed to have acted alone.
