Wearing the Captain's arm band on the night, Arjen Robben break through in the closing minute of the game to sqaure play into the box for Depay to finish and seal a 2-0 victory for the 'Oranje Boys' over Chile.
Leroy Fer opened the scoring in the closing quarter of the game before Memphis Depay tuck at the far post to seal the victory and confine chile to their first defeat at the tournament.
The victory means Netherlands has won three of their three matches so far in the World Cup in Brazil and sit top of Group B with nine points while Chile sit second with six points with Spain and Australia ranked third and fourth respectively with three and zero points.
Having won their first two encounters in the tournament, Coach Luis Van Gaal needed just a draw to stay top of the group and avoid a possible showdown with host Brazil in the round of 16.
With both sides sitting back, the game lacked any real ingenuity during the opening exchanges.
It was Chile who created the first opening, Eduardo Vargas heading over the crossbar.
The South Americans were beginning to enjoy the better of proceedings and came close to breaking the deadlock when Felipe Gutierrez curled over after being picked out by Alexis Sanchez's clever corner.
Louis van Gaal's men responded well, enjoying a good spell towards the end of the opening period, Stefan de Vrij headed Arjen Robben's vicious, curling free kick wide.
Robben announced his presence on the pitch with his vast quality as he picks up the ball inside his own half before beating two players and shooting narrowly wide.
The game was taking on an end-to-end nature, epitomised by an unmarked Gutierrez back-heading wide from Marcelo Diaz's set-piece.
Any momentum built up before the break had disappeared afterwards as both sides struggled to fashion opportunities, the desperation best summed up when Sanchez hit wildly over from 35 yards.
Robben still looked the likeliest of the Netherlands' attacking players, firing straight at Claudio Bravo after wriggling into space in the box.
Bravo had to be on high alert with 15 minutes to go, turning Memphis' 20-yard effort over the crossbar.
Yet he could do little moments later as Fer met Daryl Janmaat's centre with a bullet header that flew into the corner.
Chile responded with expected verve, yet that desire to force an equaliser ultimately proved their undoing as Robben tricked his way down the left and squared superbly for Memphis to tap home in injury-time.
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