In the opening Group D match in Hamburg, Liverpool colleague and club captain Virgil van Dijk led his nation out and played the whole game in the centre of defence.

But Poland, who had early possession, struck against the flow of play in minute 16 when Adam Buksa headed in a corner kιck from Piotr Zielinski.

Just before the half-hour mark, though, the Netherlands restored parity when Gakpo grabbed the ball in his stride and raced on to score from outside the box.

His shot missed the retreating defence, taking Polish custodian Wojciech Szczesny by surprise and leaving him powerless to stop it.

With Denzel Dumfries and Xavi Simons coming close, the Netherlands continued after the halftime break in quest of the victor.

Conversely, Poland sprang into the game and created their own threаt in the other box, which made custodian Bart Verbruggen react multiple times.

Nine minutes after Gakpo left the game looked like it would end in a draw, but in the 83rd minute, substitute Wout Weghorst made the crucial save by finding space in the area to fire low into the bottom corner and give his nation the win.

“I think it was a challenging bаttle; they are a tough opponent,” Gakpo told UEFA following the match. Things were made a little harder because they are well-organized and clearly scored first.

Though we need to be more clinical, I think we created a few good chances and opportunities. We performed really well against them, I believe, overall.

Although it was a difficult game, we prevailed in the end, which is positive.

We are a group that never gives up, he said. You saw today that we have good alternatives. We, I think, replaced the entire frontline, and they came in and performed wonderfully, which is another advantage for us.

Ryan Gravenberch of Liverpool was also an inactive substitute for Ronald Koeman’s team during the match.