How many penalties had Van Dijk taken in his career?

The Netherlands held on to their chances of qualifying for Germany 2024 with a 1-0 win over Greece on Monday thanks to Virgil van Dijk's 93rd-minute penalty, a late goal that rewarded Ronald Koeman's side's greater ambition after they had another first-half penalty but failed to capitalise. It was a late goal that rewarded Ronald Koeman's side, who had another penalty in the first half that striker Wout Weghorst failed to capitalise on and could have settled the tie much earlier. But if the home goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, by far the best player in the Greek team, saved the spot-kick after 28 minutes, he could do nothing in extra time to prevent Van Dijk's penalty to make it 1-0 and put the Netherlands in second place in Group B behind already-qualified France.

A victory that the Greek goalkeeper seemed determined to prevent, leaving the Oranje in control of the game in a first half in which the Greek side, coached by Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet, were barely capable of creating the slightest danger. In contrast to the Netherlands, who not only had possession of the ball, but also kept coming into their opponents' box, where the Dutch repeatedly found themselves up against goalkeeper Vlachodimos. In fact, the Nottingham Forest keeper not only saved Weghorst's penalty, but denied the Dutch before and after the goal with two great saves from Tijani Reijnders in the 22nd minute and Steven Bergwijn in the 45th minute.

Bergwijn, one of Koeman's two changes to the starting line-up from the side that lost 2-1 to France in Amsterdam last Friday, was again denied by the home goalkeeper at the start of the second half. Mistakes that seemed to condemn the Dutch team to a draw, which, although it allowed Koeman's side to continue depending on themselves, seemed insufficient in the face of the merits of the visiting team.

Van Dijk scorer

But when everything was heading towards a goalless draw, in the 89th minute Vangelis Pavlidis' penalty was converted by Virgil van Dijk, after a few minutes of tension due to the VAR review, to make the final score 0-1, which unleashed the nerves of the Greek team and their coach, the Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet, who saw the red card, aware of having missed a great chance to get closer to the European Championship. This is the first penalty kick he has taken in his career and he has an efficiency of 100 per cent.