Netherlands Sets World Cup Record with 5-1 Victory Over Sweden
The Netherlands triumphed over Sweden with a score of 5-1 in their second match of Group F at the 2026 World Cup. This victory allowed the Dutch national team, known as “Oranje,” to surpass a record set by Brazil during the Pelé era.
With this win against the Nordic team, the Netherlands has now gone 14 consecutive matches without defeat in World Cup finals, surpassing Brazil’s previous record of 13 matches unbeaten from 1958 to 1966.
Netherlands Achieves Longest Unbeaten Streak in World Cup History
The last match the Dutch lost was the 2010 final, where they fell to a late goal by Andrés Iniesta. They also boast an impressive record of 18 consecutive matches without defeat in group stage play at the World Cup. The last time they lost in the group stage was during the 1994 tournament in the United States when they were defeated 1-0 by Belgium. However, a paradox remains: the Dutch have never won a World Cup final.
This statistic does not count matches lost in penalty shootouts as defeats, treating them instead as draws.
In the 2022 World Cup, the Netherlands was eliminated by Argentina in the quarter-finals, following a 2-2 draw and subsequent penalty shootout loss to the eventual champions. In 2018, the Dutch did not qualify for the tournament, while in 2014, they played in the third-place match, winning 3-0 against Brazil after losing to Argentina in the semi-finals in a penalty shootout. Argentina went on to lose the final to Germany, 1-0.
The Netherlands will face Tunisia, the lowest-ranked team in the group, in their remaining group match, and they have strong reasons to continue their unbeaten streak.
Of course, we needed this. When you start a tournament, you want to start well. That brings calm. Now there was even more pressure to win. Otherwise, everything would come down to the last match in the group, and nobody wants that. We did a lot of good things, but despite the 5-1 victory, you see that at certain moments, when they changed their game plan, it took us too long to recognize this, and we could have had problems at a crucial moment, just before halftime. – Ronald Koeman
