International Friendly:
- Netherlands 5-0 Cote D’Ivoire
Netherlands subjected Cote D’Ivoire to their heaviest defeat in recent years with a 5-0 victory in an international friendly match played in Rotterdam on Sunday.
Defender Joel Veltman scored twice with Arjen Robben (penalty), Davy Klaassen and Vincent Janssen getting the other goals.
This was the heaviest ever defeat for the Africans in international football.
Dutch manager Dick Advocaat, taking over from caretaker Fred Grim hopes the result will bring back the confidence to the team as they look to rekindle their World Cup qualification campaign.
The match provided the perfect build-up to their next qualifier against Luxembourg at the same venue on Friday.
The Dutch are fourth at the halfway stage in European Group A with seven points from five matches, six points behind France, three behind second-placed Sweden and two short of Bulgaria.
2015 African champions, under manager Marc Wilmots are preparing for their Group H AFCON 2019 qualifier against Guinea at the Stade De Bouake on 10th June, 2017.
The other group teams are Central African Republic and Rwanda.
Central African Republic will host Rwanda at the Stade Barthelemy Boganda in Bangui City on 11th June, 2017.