Midfielders Georginio Wijnaldum and Wesley Sneijder scored in the 33rd and 50th minutes respectively to ensure the fight for third spot in Group A goes down to the final round of qualifiers on Tuesday.
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With the points seemingly assured, Van Persie came on to make his 100th appearance, though the Dutch were given a fright when Islambek Kuat struck a 96th-minute Kazakh consolation.
Netherlands lost its last qualification match 3 – 0 to Turkey.
After reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup past year its hard to believe that Netherlands could fail to reach the 2016 Euro’s in France. The last time the team failed to qualify for the European Championship was in 1984. “It is not important how we win, so long as we win”. “That was the aim and how it happened didn’t matter”.
El Ghazi almost made it three after a few good work from Virgil van Dijk minutes later, but his attempt was cleared off the line.
Tim Krul was given a rare start in goal for the Dutch as Jasper Cillessen hurt himself in the warm-up but Krul was also injured with 10 minutes left, allowing Jeroen Zoet to debut as the 750th Netherlands global.
Despite the many absentees, the Netherlands was never seriously troubled by Kazakhstan, though a few Dutch players struggled to adapt to the artificial turf at Astana Arena – it was the first global for the Netherlands not played on grass.
Wijnaldum came close to breaking the deadlock in the 27th minute after a fine cross from El Ghazi but the Newcastle man’s header went over the crossbar.
Young winger Anwar El Ghazi was handed his first senior cap for the Oranje and the 20-year-old had two early chances to open his tally for his country.
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The coach was keeping quiet about his line-up during Thursday’s press conference but confirmed Tete will play, while during training he has practiced with both Klaas jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie playing up front together.
