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The Netherlands beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 at the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam on Sunday evening, with skipper Gini Wijnaldum's quickfire first-half brace setting the tone for Frank de Boer's first win in charge of the Dutch.
After their 1-1 draw in a friendly against Spain in the week, de Boer had become the first-ever head coach of the Dutch national team to go winless in his first four games, so this is a monkey off his back.
Memphis Depay was central to a sensational attacking performance from the Dutch. Two Depay passes opened up the Bosnians in the 6th and 13th minutes, for Denzel Dumfries and Steven Berghuis to set up two easy tap-ins to Wijnaldum.
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Luuk de Jong had a perfectly good goal ruled out when the assistant referee wrongly ruled him offside despite him being behind the ball when Berghuis passed the ball to him.
In the second half, Dumfries got himself a second assist of the game, after bundling his way past Sead Kolasinac and setting up a tap-in for Depay.
Smail Prevljak pulled a goal back for Bosnia and Herzegovina with his first touch after coming on as a substitute, after being set up by Edin Visca.
The Dutch held on with no further scares, and set up a blockbuster final group game when they travel to Poland.
Here are five main talking points from a big win for the Netherlands.
#1 Memphis Depay is the game-changer
In the friendly against Spain in the week, Memphis was one of the weakest players on the pitch for Dutch. He struggled to keep possession, his dribbling was far from his best, and he couldn't influence that game at all.
But in this game, Depay looked like he was back to his best. Starting on the left wing, he had a lot more license to drift in-field, and constantly swapped positions with either Wijnaldum or Frenkie de Jong.
The freedom to drift across the pitch made Depay a lot harder for the Bosnian defenders to pick up. The first two goals for the Dutch exemplified the problems that Depay was caused.
For the first goal, he found himself in the inside-right channel, and slid in a superb through-ball to Dumfries, who squared it for Wijnaldum to score.
For the second goal, Depay was wide on the left flank when he received the ball from Frenkie de Jong. He used Owen Wijndal's overlapping run as a decoy to whip in a ball to Berghuis at the back-post, for him to head it into Wijnaldum's path.
Depay's sensational night got the goal it deserved when Dumfries put one on a plate for him.
#2 Gini Wijnaldum displays his versatility again
A lot of eyebrows were raised when de Boer named his lineup sans Donny van de Beek for this game. The Manchester United man had scored the only two goals in the de Boer era before this game, so there were valid questions asked about van de Beek's axing.
Davy Klaasen came into the side in place of van de Beek, and that allowed the stand-in Dutch captain Gini Wijnaldum to play in an advanced midfield role.
With Luuk de Jong's strengths lying in his hold-up play and aerial ability, Wijnaldum took up the responsibility of running behind the Bosnian defensive line, and his movement wrecked havoc.
Bosnia and Herzegovina were guilty of providing the Dutch with too much space in midfield to pick their passes. Frenkie de Jong and Depay continually drifted between the lines, to start attacks for the Dutch.
In the last two games, Wijnaldum played a deeper role in midfield, a lot more defensive and focused on stopping counter-attacks. It was a role similar to the one he generally plays for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
But in this game, de Boer gave him the license to attack and he responded in kind. The stand-in skipper has now scored seven of the last 12 goals the Netherlands have scored.
#3 Excellent performance from the Dutch full-backs
A sign of things to come in the game happened as early as in the third minute. Owen Wijndal found himself in acres of space in the left flank. His intended cross was mishit, but it hit the post, but that space he was getting encouraged Wijndal to move forward whenever he had the opportunity to.
Similarly, on the other flank, Dumfries was also being given plenty of room to operate in, as he finished the night with two assists.
The full-back positions have been a problem for the Dutch in the last few tournaments they have played in. So, to have two options like Dumfries and Wijndal is immense for them ahead of next summer's European Championships.
#4 The Netherlands still show defensive vulnerability
Even though the win was largely comfortable, the Netherlands were still not at the level they'd have liked to be defensively.
Before mentioning that they have a problem in defnece, it is important to remember that the Netherlands are without Virgil van Dijk, Matthijs de Ligt, Nathan Ake and Jasper Cillessen for the moment.
That means there is going to be some kind of uncertainty at the back, and miscommunication.
In the absence of both van Dijk and de Ligt, the Dutch need to create more leaders within their squad to lead the defence.
Both Stefan de Vrij and Daley Blind are experienced enough at the highest level to be able to lead the defence much better than they did in the second half.
That was also down to a drop in intensity which saw the Netherlands press much less from the front.
#5 Lift-off for Frank de Boer
Not only did Frank do Boer finally get the monkey off his back, in terms of winning a game in-charge, he also saw his side produce a very good performance, that had plenty of positives throughout.
For de Boer, the performances of the two young full-backs, Davy Klaasen's first start for the national team in three years, Steven Berghuis's spark, and his skipper's goals were all encouraging signs in building towards the European Championships in the summer.
The Dutch head coach had troubled stints at the likes of Atlanta United in the MLS, and Crystal Palace before this, but the quality of his playing squad definitely is on a different level with the national team.
