On Monday night, Virgil van Dijk captained Netherlands to a 4-0 victory over Lithuania in their final World Cup qualifying match, putting an exclamation mark on the Dutch national team’s successful campaign
to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
It was his 72nd time wearing the armband for his country, taking the world’s best centre half past former top capped Dutch captain Frank de Boer, with the duo both standing on 71 before Monday’s game. With the victory in his 72nd appearance as captain, it means Netherlands top Group G with 20 points.
Second place Poland ended with a commendable 17 and will head to a playoff, but despite the relatively close points total Netherlands’ +23 goal differential compared to Poland’s +7 speaks to this current Dutch squad’s quality and performance levels.
Further adding to the just how noteworthy his captaincy numbers are, it’s worth remembering he missed almost an entire season due to an ACL injury, and that if he had been active for that time for club and country it’s plausible he would have been flirting with an astounding 100 caps as Netherlands captain.
