The team from Rotterdam must now fear that AZ, which will play against NEC on Sunday, is approaching a point and increasing the pressure in the battle for third place.
At FC Groningen Danny Buijs was not allowed to sit on the bench. because he has four yellow cards to his name. However, the former Feyenoord player, who always coaches fanatically and is on top of all his teams, had done his homework well. Buijs surprised the Rotterdammers with a team that was not only excellently organized, but also dared to build up with guts.
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With many young players who had never played in a full Kuip before, that was in itself an achievement. Arne Slot had already indicated a day before the match that he knows quite well how Buijs can organize his team, even if he has to start every year with less material because his best players have been sold again. And Slot also knows the assistant who did the honors well. Adrie Poldervaart is not an assistant Sinterklaas who puts out the training hats on the field in the north, he has already earned his spurs as head coach in professional football and stood just as fanatically along the line as Buijs at other times.
Michael de Leeuw is the center of the Groningen revelry after his 0-1.
Ⓒ Pro Shots
The courage of FC Groningen was rewarded early on. After 23 minutes, Michael de Leeuw gave the visitors the lead when he was allowed to lay out a bird in the penalty area, because Marcos Senesi let himself be beat on speed a little earlier and Tyrell Malacia suddenly wanted to crawl into the goal and let De Leeuw free.
For the first time this season, the home team really struggled to find solutions to break the organization of the opposing team. The longer it lasted, the more desperate Feyenoord became. Shortly before the break, Slot saw that his team got a few chances via Guus Til and Bryan Linssen (blocked by goalkeeper Peter leeuwenburgh and Bjorn Meijer), but it could not convince him that it would be okay if he let his team in this way. mess around.
Linssen as Messi
Slot provided Feyenoord with new blood very soon after the break by applying a double substitution. He sidelined Bryan Linssen, who has scored the same goal as Lionel Messi since the beginning of December (both just one goal), and Alireza Jahanbakhsh. Swedish talent Patrik Walemark and center forward Dessers were expected to give the front line a new face.
Cyriel Dessers cries out after his equalizer.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
That had an effect within fourteen minutes, because Dessers, who had been missing for weeks (injured during a practice match against Anderlecht) headed in a cross from Fredrik Aursnes very quickly. Slot threw in another attacker and a midfielder with Jens Toornstra and Reiss Nelson. At that point he had already replaced more than a third of his squad and that was also proof that he was not satisfied.
A few minutes later, Dessers’ header hit the post from a pass from Walemark, allowing FC Groningen to escape. But the pressure on the team, with the Legion as the old-fashioned twelfth man, was mounting and the winning goal was no longer produced.
View the results, position and program in the Eredivisie here