Monday 13 October 2014 12:45, UK
Schalke forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is pushing for a starting place when Netherlands travel to Iceland on Monday night after helping bail his team out at home to Kazakhstan.
The Dutch were facing what would have been a hugely embarrassing defeat in Amsterdam on Friday night before Huntelaar equalised six minutes after entering the action, and Kazakhstan swiftly self-destructed with the dismissal of Baurzhan Dzholchiyev contributing to a 3-1 defeat.
While Holland escaped with the three points, the performance has sparked a debate at home over whether Huntelaar should replace Robin van Persie - scorer of a late penalty on Friday night - when they travel to Reykjavik.
"If it was up to me, obviously I would start every game, but that decision is up to the coach," Huntelaar said on uefa.com. "The important thing is always to be sharp and score when the opportunity arises. When the spaces are small, the crosses have to be good.
"I always want to score as quickly as possible, whether I am in the starting lineup or playing as a substitute. It was important to score fast, so there was still time to score a second."
The pressure remains firmly on the Dutch after their opening defeat to the Czech Republic and Friday's uncertain response, and they travel to Iceland three points behind both the Czechs and their hosts.
While they do not share the question marks over form of the Dutch, the Czech Republic will surely have taken note of Kazakhstan's performance in Amsterdam as they prepare to head to Astana.
They will head there on the back of a 2-1 victory in Turkey, but while the result looks impressive on paper, coach Pavel Vrba admitted there was some good fortune involved as Turkey spurned a string of first-half chances.
"Me and my team are so happy about the result,'' he said. "We were so lucky, especially in the first half, because we couldn't get organised and Turkey had a lot of chances. We're so lucky that we didn't concede more than once."
That might explain why Vrba still has the Dutch pegged as the big favourites, and why he is taking nothing for granted.
"The Netherlands are still the big favourites in this group, and the fact Turkey have not got any points is not a big deal because they are always a very strong team and they can recover," he said.
"For me, three teams are chasing second place - ourselves, Turkey and Iceland. Getting these two wins on board is a big head start for us, but it is no guarantee of finishing second in this group."
That result in Istanbul has piled the pressure on Turkey coach Fatih Terim ahead of their trip to Latvia.
"We're bottom of the group. We have to recover quickly and get some points," Terim said. "We have eight games to play. We cannot abandon hope."
