Feyenoord is beaten by Go Ahead Eagles and is the leader, PSV is the big winner of the weekend

A great success for Eagles coach Melvin Boel, who, after eight years working in Feyenoord’s youth academy and a year on his own at FC Dordrecht, destroyed his old club. After previously also beating Aston Villa in the Adelaarshorst.

The objective of becoming champion has not changed at Feyenoord, but the loss and the enormous blow by rival PSV at AZ (5-1) hit Van Persie & co hard. In two weeks after the international break, NEC will visit De Kuip while Go Ahead Eagles have to go to Heracles Almelo.

The Eagles last lost nine years ago

Feyenoord last lost in Deventer nine years ago, but it was easy to guess that the meeting in 2025 would be the most difficult of all. Go Ahead Eagles is now a real sub-topper, can hardly be beaten at home, is now a Europa League participant and defeated Aston Villa in the Adelaarshorst.

Of course, European football makes itself felt three days earlier at Red Bull Salzburg; At the same time, Feyenoord also had to go all the way to VfB Stuttgart. In that respect the cards were evenly shuffled. However, the Feyenoorders were told in advance that fellow leader PSV had scored terribly at AZ with a 5-1 score. With that knowledge, the Rotterdam team had to win by at least four goals to overtake champion PSV again in the rankings.

Penalty Eagles

At a terribly high pace immediately after Joey Kooij’s first whistle, both teams seemed to want to give each other the final blow. Go Ahead Eagles started with a dangerous corner, Ayase Ueda headed just wide for Feyenoord and Anis Hadj Moussa shot onto the underside of the crossbar via goalkeeper Jari De Busser. Then less than four minutes had been played.

Eight minutes and a yellow card for Luciano Valente, selected by national coach Ronald Koeman, later Go Ahead Eagles opened the scoring. Leo Sauer thought he could defend a corner in his own penalty area with a passing action past Mats Deijl. Slovak grabbed the right defender by the shoulders so that he fell and Kooij pointed to the penalty spot.

Kooij was allowed to whistle for Feyenoord again

Kooij was finally allowed to referee Feyenoord again after his brother-in-law Calvin Stengs – both have a relationship with daughters of Frank de Boer – made a loan transfer to Pisa in Italy.

Deijl took the penalty flawlessly for the 1-0. Remarkably, both teams’ drive for action came to a standstill in the opening minutes. Melvin Boel let his team take up defensive positions and Feyenoord was unable to force openings. Sauer in particular had a particularly mediocre evening.

Sem Steijn joins in

Van Persie was visibly disappointed on the bench by Sauer’s choices and left him in the dressing room at half-time. Together with Kyle Larin. The Canadian striker started again as an offensive midfielder while Sem Steijn, who had returned from injury, started as a reserve.

In the second half, Steijn came on for Larin and Sauer made way for Aymen Sliti. Feyenoord did push more than before half time, but had difficulty making a difference in the small space. The Ueda-Steijn couple – together scoring 19 goals in the Eredivisie – also barely had a chance. With his best opportunity, Steijn half slipped and the ball landed on the body of Joris Kramer.

Feyenoord loses Hartman

At the other end, Belgian Mathis Suray had the best chance, but he only shot ahead of Timon Wellenreuther at the German keeper. In the eyes of former Feyenoord player and international Quilindschy Hartman, time was running out for the Rotterdam team to even pull out a draw.

It caused Feyenoord to take more and more risks and become more vulnerable in the transition. In the 86th, left back Dean James closed the Rotterdam book with a counter. He cleverly cut out Hadj Moussa and hit straight through the middle for the 2-0. Watanabe’s 2-1 came too late to get a point at Go Ahead Eagles.