Memphis Depay about passport gate and goal against Malta: Always hungry

The 31-year-old all-time top scorer of the Dutch team arrived at the Dutch training camp a day later than planned because he could not find his passport in São Paulo before he wanted to catch the airport to Amsterdam.

On course for the World Cup: Dutch team comfortably past Malta despite a weak first half

“It was nowhere, then you assume that it has been removed, because in twelve years of the Dutch national team this has never happened,” Depay said to the NOS. “To come to the Netherlands I had to apply for an emergency passport and then another one to fly to Malta. Unfortunately, that is unnecessary energy. I am happy that I was able to join so quickly.”

Depay made his 53rd appearance in the Dutch national team. The Corinthians attacker converted a hard cross from Denzel Dumfries into an assist for the defender. “Unfortunately I couldn’t start, but I did make minutes and a goal. It’s always difficult to live with that. I’m always hungry, but I understood.”

What does Ronald Koeman think of it?

National coach Ronald Koeman was quite satisfied. “The result is quite good,” he said. “But we could have done things better, especially in the first half.”

“I thought we started well on a very bad pitch,” Koeman said in the press room of the Ta’Qali stadium. “We gave away the first chance with Virgil, but after that we built up the game well. Jurriën Timber played well in that phase. He was released a number of times and went into midfield with the ball. This allowed us to find free people and had a lot of threat.

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Then things got a bit disorganized. Then you have to find solutions faster. Then I thought the pace slowed down. Then you don’t free people. We did better in the second half and gave maximum gas until the end.”