Netherlands boss Louis Van Gaal and his players would be keen to makeup for lost time at the World Cup 2022 tournament after the country failed to qualify for the last edition in Russia four years ago. The failure to qualify for the Russia 2018 World Cup tournament came on the back of an impressive third place finish at the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil.
Louis Van Gaal was the Netherlands manager when they finished third in Brazil eight years ago. He left the job immediately after the tournament in Brazil to take the managerial job at Premier League outfit Manchester United.
The Netherlands qualified for the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar after finishing first in their qualifying group in the European region of the qualifiers. They finished at the top of their group ahead of likes of Turkey and Norway. Turkey finished second and they were eliminated from the World Cup 2022 tournament by immediate past European champions Portugal in the playoffs. The Dutch team have been drawn in the same group alongsidehosts Qatar, Ecuador and Senegal. The four teams are in Group A at the World Cup 2022 tournament.
Senegal are going to Qatar after seeing off Egypt over two legs in the African section of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers. The West Africans became African champions for the first time in their history after beating Egypt on penalties in the final and they were boosted further with the penalty shootout win over the same team in the playoffs. Senegal also got the better of the Egyptians in the World Cup playoffs via penalties.
South American side Ecuador are also going to Qatar later this year as the fourth team to qualify for this year’s World Cup automatically via the South American section after Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.