Referee Stephanie Frappart made history as the first woman to take charge of a men's World Cup qualifier as the Netherlands beat Latvia 2-0 in front of 5,000 fans. France's Frappart was in December the first woman to take charge of a men's Champions League match, between Juventus and Dynamo Kiev. The 37-year-old was also the first woman to referee in the French top flight, the lead official for the 2019 Uefa Super Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea, and made her Europa League debut in October. She took charge as Frank de Boer's side bounced back from their opening round defeat in Turkey with a dominant performance that delighted the small but rowdy crowd at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam. The Dutch capital is set to host matches at this summer's delayed Euro 2020 and the supporters, who all tested negative for Covid-19, were at the match as part of an experiment to see whether events with spectators can take place safely during the pandemic. They went home happy thanks to Steven Berghuis' superb first-half strike and a Luuk de Jong header in the 69th minute, although the Dutch could have won by more, wasting a host of chances and twice hitting the bar. "The way we played pleased me but only winning 2-0 after creating dozens of chances isn't enough," said a frustrated De Boer. "We deserved to win by at least five goals. We tried everything... I looked at the statistics and we touched the ball 96 times in the opposition area. It's incredible." The Netherlands are third in Group G, three points behind leaders Turkey, who won 3-0 win in Norway and Montenegro, who maintained their perfect start with a 4-1 victory over Gibraltar.
