Cody Gakpo scored two penalties as The Netherlands claimed a 2-1 victory in their final World Cup warm-up game against Uzbekistan, which was marred by an injury to goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
Having announced before Monday’s game in New York that right-back Jurrien Timber would miss the tournament, the Oranje saw first-choice goalkeeper Verbruggen forced off in the second half after a nasty fall while claiming a free-kick left him favouring his right leg.
While Ronald Koeman’s side have some strong backup options in the form of Mark Flekken and Robin Roefs, the injury to Verbruggen will be a significant concern ahead of the Netherlands’ World Cup opener against Japan on Sunday.
Gakpo’s first-half penalty gave the Netherlands the lead against Uzbekistan, who appeared to have snatched a draw when Igor Sergeev hit home at the far post in the 92nd minute after Guus Til was sent off for handball five minutes earlier.
However, Gakpo calmly slotted in a second Netherlands penalty in the 97th minute to spare their blushes and secure an unconvincing and potentially pyrrhic victory.
Gakpo fired the opener into the bottom-left corner after Crysencio Summerville was brought down by Jakhongir Urozov.
Virgil van Dijk headed narrowly wide from a corner seven minutes into the second half and Summerville also went close before Verbruggen made his exit after initially trying to fight through the injury.
Substitute Brian Brobbey saw a goal disallowed for offside and there was a scare for the Netherlands when Guus Til handled as Uzbekistan looked to find an equaliser with a long ball forward.
Til was sent off following a VAR review but the incident was ruled to have taken placed outside the box. Despite that reprieve, Koeman’s men did concede as Sergeev showed great instincts to fire in from point blank range, only for Gakpo to convert the winner from 12 yards after a foul by Rustam Ashurmatov.
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