The Netherlands were sent home after losing the penalty shootout to Morocco at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Netherlands took the lead in the 72nd minute thanks to a strike from Cody Gakpo. But it wouldn’t last long, as Issa Diop headed in the equaliser to force extra time, followed by penalties.
Justin Kluivert, Quenten Timber, and Crysencio Summerville missed their penalty attempts, as Morocco managed to advance on penalties, ending the Netherlands’ World Cup campaign.
Netherlands have a shambolic penalty shootout record at FIFA World Cup
This marks the Netherlands’ third consecutive penalty shootout loss in FIFA World Cups. Many will remember the exciting match between the Netherlands and Argentina in the 2022 World Cup.
But their record has been poor at the FIFA World Cup long before that. In fact, the Netherlands have won just one penalty shootout at the World Cup.
This poor record gets even worse when you look at their record in continental tournaments like the Euros, where they’ve participated in five shootouts and won just one.
Netherlands’ lack of genuine attacking firepower comes back to haunt them again
One could argue that the Netherlands ended up in this position again because of their lack of clinical finishing against Morocco.
But this tournament has exposed a huge problem for the Netherlands – they have no high-level attackers to call upon.
Outside of Cody Gakpo, who has been the team’s best offensive player at this tournament, the Dutch lacked a serious attacking threat.
Some blame also has to be attributed to Ronald Koeman, whose signature defence-centric approach has led to the focus on the attack being minimised.
