With that, the stay in the premier league is temporarily over for a season and departing trainer Dick Lukkien did not get the farewell he had hoped for after 270 games. Shortly after the red smoke had cleared, the game started in which FC Emmen opened eagerly in the initial phase, but was not yet able to pose a major threat. After fifteen minutes FC Emmen did claim a penalty kick when Ole Romeny went down, but referee Lindhout wanted nothing to do with it.
After the first drink break, inserted because of the heat, halfway through the first half, the pace slowed down slightly. FC Emmen maintained a predominance, but did not get the visitors into trouble. While the game continued towards half-time, there was suddenly a moment of revival when a shot by Jeremy Antonisse hit the post and FC Emmen was close to the desired lead. After the break, the order remained the same as in the first half. Trying to crack Almere City FC’s defense as quickly as possible, but the exact opposite happened when Rajiv van La Parra correctly estimated a cross from Anthony Limbombe at the far post.
Where the supporters of the home team had not yet recovered from the hammer blow, Jorrit Smeets doubled the lead on behalf of the visitors and the verdict on FC Emmen seemed to have been passed early. With more than half an hour left on the clock, the home team looked for the connection and it came much earlier than expected when Jari Vlak scored from the rebound in the second instance, after Romeny failed to use the first chance. Where FC Emmen tried to squeeze out an offensive, Almere City FC did not want to go along with the pace dictated by the home team.
In the final phase, FC Emmen could be found in half of the guests with the regularity of the clock, but great opportunities were hardly counted. In the final minutes of regular playing time, FC Emmen was still close to a penalty, but the VAR ruled otherwise. Lindhout added eight minutes of injury time to the game that had lost a lot of entertainment value, especially in the last half hour of the second half.