Joshua Zirkzee opened his senior international account for the Netherlands on Saturday night, but the Manchester United striker still thinks there’s room to improve his performance.
Zirkzee made just his third Oranje appearance and his first from the start as the Netherlands kicked off their UEFA Nations League A Group 3 campaign in style, beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 5-2 in Eindhoven.
The newly-signed Manchester United striker kicked off the scoring in the 13th minute, heading home after a shot from Xavi Simons was blocked. And after Ermedin Demirovic equalised for the visitors, Zirkzee then turned provider as he set up Tijjani Reijnders to make it 2-1.
Cody Gakpo, Wout Weghorst and Simons scored the rest of the Dutch goals, while Edin Dzeko added another for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“Yes, very proud, a proud moment,” told UEFA.com of opening his senior international account.
“My family was here, my grandparents came to watch me for the first time in a very long time, so it was a great day for all of us.
“Obviously Bosnia-Herzegovina defended in their own half and it was up to us to look for combinations and to find each other, and we could have been even more clinical today even though we did a great job. So overall I think it was OK.”
Man Utd star Zirkzee critical despite first international goal
In a later interview with Dutch TV, Zirkzee was a little more critical of his own performance.
Despite noticing a goal and an assist, the 23-year-old felt he could have helped Reijnders score another goal, while admitting he made a few errors on the night.
“It went OK, I feel like I made a couple of mistakes,” said Zirkzee (via 90min). “I could have another assist for Reijnders. We had a good ‘click’ during the game.”
Zirkzee has the chance to improve on an already impressive performance when the Netherlands host Germany in Amsterdam on Tuesday.
