“I am very proud to have the record now, but I am even prouder to lead this group of boys for such a long time,” said Van Dijk at the NOS. “When I was a little boy, I would never have dreamed of this. The Dutch team had already come a long way, let alone taking over Frank de Boer’s record.”
With a victory over Lithuania, the Dutch team secured a ticket for next summer’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. “You did what you had to do,” said the Liverpool defender. “Towards the end we became a bit sloppy, but this was a good victory. We had difficult phases in the matches of the qualifying series. We have a total of four more practice matches in March and June to improve that and be ready for the World Cup.”
“We have a great group of players who play at the highest level,” said Van Dijk. “It is now important that we create consistency as a group, that we work together to ensure that we become a team that is difficult or impossible to beat. I am very much looking forward to it. I hope that we can get many Dutch fans to America. I have every confidence. Anything can happen at a final tournament, hopefully in a positive way for us. Hopefully Suriname will also qualify.”
Video: ‘Then it will never work out for the Dutch team at the World Cup’
| Position | Team | P | GS | W | V | G | DS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | +23 | |
| 2 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | +7 | |
| 3 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | -6 | |
| 4 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | -15 | |
| 5 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 3 | -9 |