Van Persie gets van Gaal off to a flyer

Robin van Persie’s 30th international set the Netherlands on their way to a hard-fought 2-0 victory in their opening World Cup qualifier against Turkey last night.

The Manchester United striker opened the scoring in the 16th minute and Luciano Narsingh added a second in stoppage time as the Dutch registered a morale-boosting victory following their poor Euro 2012 showing.

The hosts were made to fight all the way in a keenly contested Group D opener, but got the job done to hand Louis van Gaal a win in his first competitive outing following his return to the national team for a second spell as coach.