Van Gaal lauds important win over Turkey

8 September 2012 08:53

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal was delighted with his side's hard-fought 2-0 win over Turkey in Friday's 2014 World Cup qualifier.

The Dutch struggled to contain the Turks after grabbing an early lead via Robin van Persie, but they eventually bagged the full three points as Luciano Narsingh put the match to bed well into stoppage time of the second half at the Amsterdam ArenA.

"It was squeaky bum time until we netted that second goal. Turkey are a great team with some very good players, yet we beat them. This is a very important victory," Van Gaal told Dutch television station SBS6.

The former Bayern Munich coach opted to field a rather inexperienced team as he left out several regulars, but Van Gaal does not feel that he took too much risk by fielding a number of promising youngsters.

"I do not think that I did anything crazy, but I did expect more from our defence. Bruno Martins Indi and Jetro Willems bounced back after the interval, though. That was rather impressive," he said.

"We created a lot more chances than Turkey and should have decided the match at an earlier stage. That is something we will have to improve on."

The Netherlands resume match action on Monday when they take on Hungary.