Willem II took three very important points in the fight against relegation on Sunday afternoon. The Tilburg team won 1-0 against Vitesse at home. Due to the victory, Willem II is no longer at the bottom of the Eredivisie.
The moment of the match came in the fourth minute. Jizz Hornkamp then ensured that the King Willem II Stadium almost exploded. The striker ran with arms wide and tongue out, screaming for joy. In the stands everyone jumped into each other’s arms, as My Little Lady sounded from the speakers.
That great euphoria was the result of a wonderful goal by Hornkamp. He gained possession of the ball through a Vitesse player. After taking the ball with his chest, he lashed out devastatingly. The striker left Vitesse goalie Markus Schubert no chance with his shot. And with that he gave Willem II a dream start on the early Sunday afternoon: 1-0.
Fighting William II
After the early lead, it was mainly a matter of holding back for Willem II in the rest of the game. Vitesse insisted more and more and emphatically went on the hunt for the equalizer, with possibly even more in mind. The Tilburg team did everything it could to prevent that.
It often put a lot of pressure on the rear of the club from Arnhem in the first half. In the second half it was forced more and more backwards. The Willem II players often followed the Vitesse players. But they did so with full conviction, fighting for every meter. And in the counter it could sometimes even become dangerous.
Supported by the public, which in the morning already gave the supporters bus a helping hand with fireworks and singing, confidence grew as the minutes ticked away. A sigh of relief was heard in the stands when Timon Wellenreuther managed to work another ball out of his goal in the last minute. Not much later it turned out to be the last real opportunity for Vitesse. Willem II held on and managed to pull the early lead over the line, so that in the relegation battle it suddenly gave itself hope for a good end of the season.
Ranking
With the victory, Willem II was released from last place within a week. The team of trainer Kevin Hofland skips over Sparta with the three points. It doesn’t help much with that, because the seventeenth place – which it now occupies – also means direct relegation to the Kitchen Champion Division at the end of the season.
More important than leaving the last place is that Willem II manages to connect with a group of competitors with the victory. Fortuna Sittard and PEC Zwolle also have 26 points, while the gap with RKC Waalwijk is only two points.