Joshua Zirkzee was the matchwinner against Serbia (2-1), despite not making head coach Xavi Hernández's original squad. The striker only came into the group after Brian Brobbey's injury.
Zirkzee came on at half-time and struck in the 71st minute after good work from Tijjani Reijnders. The striker tapped in on the goal line, although ESPN reporter Pascal Kamperman questioned whether he needed to touch it at all. "Even if it was going in, I think Tijjani would know that I still gave it an extra touch," Zirkzee said with a smile to the sports channel.
The Manchester United forward then admitted he did need to apply the finishing touch. "Otherwise I think it was going on to the post. But it was a good move and fortunately Reijnders and I were in the right place."
A day after the match against Germany (1-1), Zirkzee received his Netherlands call-up after Brobbey dropped out. "I was woken up by a friend and four hours later I was on a flight to Amsterdam." The Schiedam native said it was nothing new, with something similar having happened to him during the 2024 European Championship in Germany.
"I absolutely did not expect a call," the 25-year-old striker admitted. "I'm obviously not a starter, so it did give me a good feeling that the coach had confidence in me to call me up. But absolutely not expected, no."
Zirkzee then revealed that Xavi had told him he called him up because he is good on the ball, despite his disappointing lack of minutes in the Premier League. "You have to be able to play football, otherwise you're of no use," the forward felt, having so far played only twenty minutes in the English top flight.
At Manchester United, he said, there is simply plenty of competition and the coach (Michael Carrick, ed.) makes his choices. "At the moment that means I am mainly coming on as a substitute and in the end I have to do something about that myself, even if it isn't easy," said Zirkzee. "Even so, it was still quite a big surprise that the coach called me up," he concluded.