Sign up for the Football Update and stay up to date with the latest football news.
The Limburgers could not rely on the Greek veteran Dimitrios Siovas in the Grolsch Veste and saw Mickaël Tirpan drop out injured in the warm-up. The Belgian was replaced by Andreas Samaris.
At FC Twente there was a base place for Vaclav Cerny, his first base place since he recovered from a cruciate ligament injury. That took a long time for Cerny, who already made his comeback as a substitute on 20 November last year. Cerny’s compatriot Michal Sadilek was absent due to illness and was replaced by Jesse Bosch.
grumbling audience
After the lesser performance in the derby against Heracles last week, FC Twente was very keen to pick up the thread again at home. But also against Fortuna, a lot went wrong for a sold-out Grolsch Veste. The audience started to grumble when Zian Flemming shot the ball into the goal at the first big chance for Fortuna (0-1).
FC Twente stepped up a gear and immediately had good opportunities, but Ricky van Wolfswinkel hit the bar and Cerny shot wide. The deserved equalizer came in the 38th minute. Ramiz Zerrouki sent Dimitris Limnios away with a passing pass and the Greek gave Van Wolfswinkel a good shot, who scored. The sixteenth Eredivisie goal of the experienced goal-getter this season and with that, the Woudenberger has had his most productive season since 2016/2017, when he made twenty in the Vitesse shirt.
Van Wolfswinkel scored for Twente
Pro Shots
FC Twente should have worked hard for the equalizer, but soon found themselves behind again. Referee Jochem Kamphuis awarded a free kick in a dangerous place, after Mats Seuntjens went very easily to the ground when he felt Joshua Brenet’s hand in the back. Flemming cleverly curled the ball over the wall into the Twente goal, allowing Fortuna to go into halftime with a 1-2 lead.
Twente preponderance
In the second half, Twente’s dominance was even greater. Cerny hit the crossbar, Brenet and Van Wolfswinkel met the well-keeping Fortuna goalkeeper Yanick van Osch on their way, while Limnios sent the ball high in a promising position. And also with a good individual action by Van Wolfswinkel the ball went over. Fortuna was mainly busy holding back, although there were still shooting opportunities for Flemming and striker Paul Gladon in sparse outbreaks, who found FC Twente goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall on his way.
In the meantime, the irritation about the continuous time wasting of the Limburgers ran high at FC Twente and the home crowd. Van Osch took tens of seconds with each goal kick, while frequent injury treatments were needed for players of the relegation candidate. Fortuna pulled out all the stops for the three points, as witnessed by the six yellow cards that were collected.
Eight minutes of injury time
There were still opportunities for Cerny, Ugalde and Vlap, but the ball did not want to go in, not even in the eight minutes of extra time, as a result of which FC Twente lost expensive points in the battle for direct placement for European football. AZ can take over fourth place on goal difference tomorrow with a win over Ajax. For Fortuna, after the great performance in Enschede, another year of Eredivisie football beckons. The Limburgers now have 32 points, the same as RKC Waalwijk, but a less goal difference, so Fortuna remains fifteenth. The gap with the three finalists is now six points, but PEC Zwolle, Sparta and Willem II will all be in action later tonight.