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Louis van Gaal waited to greet Cody Gapko in stoppage time with a beaming grin, a high five and a slap on the back. It was Gapko’s reward for his crucial goal, a towering header to beat Edouard Mendy and set Holland on the road to victory in a difficult opening fixture.

For spells in the game, Senegal were on top. They created the better chances and they extended Van Gaal’s goalkeeper Andries Noppert, who was required to produce three excellent second-half saves on his debut.

Two of them were when the game was goalless, and the Dutch were clinging on for a point. Then, in the 84th minute, Frenkie de Jong clipped a teasing pass forward into the penalty area.

Mendy called it his and rushed from his line but Gapko had sized it all up and sprang high across the front of the Chelsea goalkeeper, finding the net with a glancing header.

It broke the game open. Davy Klaasen added a second in the closing moments of the game, firing in the rebound after Mendy saved a low effort from substitute Memphis Depay.

The two-goal defeat was cruel on Senegal. They had started brightly, as if determined to prove there was more about them than simply Sadio Mane, Bayern Munich’s former Liverpool striker who is out injured.