Cody Gakpo has answered every question anyone had about whether he belongs at this level. Two goals in the second half, the Netherlands 5-1 Sweden, and somewhere in the middle of that second goal — the one that turned out to be the 100th scored at this World Cup — you could see exactly why Liverpool paid £37 million to bring him from PSV three years ago. He drifted wide, took a pass from Summerville, cut onto his right foot, and hit the net like someone who had been doing it all his life.
What the numbers say
Gakpo's double against Sweden took him to five goals in the World Cup group stage for the Netherlands — matching Robin van Persie as the country's most prolific scorer in that phase of the competition. At 25, he is producing in the biggest tournament in football at exactly the moment you'd want him to. The form mirrors what Liverpool fans have seen domestically over the past two seasons, but turned up several notches.
He also scored the 100th goal of the 2026 World Cup, which is one of those milestones that sounds more significant than it perhaps is — but the manner in which it arrived told you something real. It was not a tap-in. It was not a penalty. It was a goal that required skill, composure, and the right read of the situation. The sort of goal that reminds you what a good footballer actually looks like.
The platform shift
There was an interesting detail in Gakpo's post-match comments. He spoke about playing with a "different freedom" for the Netherlands compared to what he sometimes feels at club level. That is worth unpacking. At Liverpool, Gakpo operates within a system that has specific demands — positioning, pressing, combination play. With the Dutch, the structure is more fluid, and he is trusted to find space and cause problems in his own way.
Neither version is better or worse. But it does suggest that his ceiling is higher than even his best Liverpool performances have shown. A player who scores five group-stage goals at a World Cup while playing more freely than his club allows him to is a player with untapped depth.
Netherlands through to the knockout stage
The 5-1 scoreline against Sweden was emphatic enough to make group-stage qualification a formality. Ronald Koeman's side have goals in them — Brian Brobbey also scored twice, completing an attacking display that left Sweden with very little to be positive about. The Dutch go into the knockout rounds with momentum, a confident attacking unit, and a number 9 who is scoring at will.
For Gakpo personally, this is the tournament he needed. His first World Cup in Qatar was promising but didn't quite produce a standout narrative. This one is shaping up to be his.
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