Although the difference in strength was initially large, PEC Zwolle managed to fight its way back into the game after the break and to make it an exciting second half in Grolsch Veste, which was once again almost full with 28,000 supporters, where the kick-off had to be postponed a few minutes due to the smelled of an atmospheric action by the fanatical FC Twente supporters.
At FC Twente, trainer Ron Jans and his assistant Andries Ulderink were missing on the bench because of corona. The honors were taken care of by second assistant Ivar van Dinteren. The suspended Michel Sadilek was replaced by Jesse Bosch. The suspended Yuta Nakayama and injured Oussama Darfalou were missing from PEC Zwolle.
Under trainer Dick Schreuder, PEC Zwolle has shown that it can play well-cared-for and daring football and also showed this at times in the Grolsch Veste, but was initially much too sloppy and offensively impotent to be able to claim a result. FC Twente is known as a team that frequently forces opponents to make mistakes and fully lived up to that reputation against their fellow provincial.
The first big chance of the match came from the tampering of the Zwolle captain Bram van Polen, from which Virgil Misidjan was unable to take advantage. FC Twente put PEC Zwolle under pressure and that led to many mistakes in the final. Weak defenses led to the 1-0 after 19 minutes. Thomas van de Belt and Van Polen were tricked by the well-perpetuating Michel Vlap, who kept the overview and passed the ball well to Daan Rots. The 20-year-old wing attacker from Groenlo could simply tap in for his third season goal.
FC Twente remained the dominant party, but as is often the case in the last matches, the team was not very careful in the finish. With the necessary art and flying work, PEC Zwolle managed to keep the margin at one. The last player escaped from a wider deficit when Van Polen managed to remove a bet from Julio Pleguezuelo from the goal mouth.
Because the margin remained only one, PEC Zwolle, which had to see Mustafa Saymak injured early, got the feeling that there was something to be gained in the Grolsch Veste. After the break, Schreuder’s team showed a bit more offensive urge to act. But it is not easy to score against FC Twente, because the tukkers have one of the better Eredivisie keepers under the bar with Lars Unnerstall. The German proved that with a clever reflex on a header from Thomas van den Belt. Substitute Slobodan Tedic shot the ball wide from the edge of the box a little later. Unnerstall was also ready for a shot by the Zwolle top scorer Daishawn Redan. Just before time, Joshua Brenet, the ex-PSV player who is a revelation in Enschede, was still close to a second goal for FC Twente, but just such a rush through the center as last week against AZ did not result in a goal this time.
The Zwolle attacking urge after the break ultimately yielded nothing tangible, so that the last player lost for the seventeenth time this season. Two weeks ago, the joy was great at PEC Zwolle, when the relegation cracker of Fortuna Sittard was won and the people of Zwolle were able to leave last place. What weighed down the joy then was the knowledge that PEC Zwolle has the toughest program of all the teams at the bottom. After the lost home match against Feyenoord last week, PEC Zwolle dropped back to last place and this round of play also yielded nothing for the team of trainer Dick Schreuder, who will also meet AZ, Ajax and PSV in the remainder of the competition. The IJsselderby will first follow in two weeks’ time against Go Ahead Eagles, the fellow countryman and great rival, who have now amassed thirty points and are almost certain of another year in the Eredivisie. A goal that is becoming increasingly difficult for PEC Zwolle with twenty points after 27 matches.
View the results, position and program in the Eredivisie here