Venom in the tail: Fleks and Orange beat Wales | 1Limburg

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In his third international match in the Dutch national team, Mark Flek seemed to be on his way to his first clean sheet for a long time. That scoop eluded the keeper on Wednesday evening in injury time, but he did beat Wales with the Orange.

After the goalkeeper from Bocholtz had no chance in the 92nd minute to stop a header from Rhys Norrington-Davies, Wout Weghorst scored a Dutch three-pointer a minute later: 1-2.

Little to do
National coach Louis van Gaal lined up eleven other players against Belgium – which was convincingly won 1-4 – on Wednesday evening. Fleks thus took the place of Jasper Cillessen under the bar. In the first half he took a Welsh free kick in style, but the Freiburg goalkeeper had relatively little to do all in all.

high balls
The game in Cardiff was not exactly exciting, but was broken open when Teun Koopmeiners scored with a diagonal shot right after the break. The Orange and Fleks, who had to intercept a few high balls, had little to fear from Wales. At the Dutch National Team, the strong holders Frenkie de Jong and Steven Bergwijn still came within the lines and the victory did not seem to be in danger.

Injury time
But the venom was in the tail. Hans Hateboer was fooled in injury time by Norrington-Davies, who nodded the ball hard past the hopeless Fleks. A division of points seemed to be the verdict, but in minute 93 Weghorst struck on the other side. Flek did not keep his goal clean in his third international match, but after a 4-2 win over Denmark on his debut and a 1-1 draw against Germany, he is still unbeaten in the Orange uniform.

Also read: Back to the roots: keeper Fleks in WDZ shirt on the field

Poland and again Wales
With six points from two matches, the Netherlands leads its group in the Nations League, the competition that national coach Van Gaal mainly sees as a preparation tournament for the World Cup in Qatar. On Saturday, the Netherlands will play against Poland in the Rotterdam Kuip and Wales will again be the opponent in the same stadium on Tuesday.

playing minutes
It is likely that in at least one of those duels again playing minutes for Fleks are in the offing, as is also the case for competitor Jasper Cillessen. Kjell Scherpen is the third goalkeeper in the selection, since Tim Krul left the training camp injured. Another potential first choice, Justin Bijlow, is also missing in this international match due to injuries.

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