Sunday 2nd February 2014
FC UTRECHT 1-1 AJAX
League leaders Ajax failed to take advantage of Vitesse’s slip-up on Friday with a 1-1 draw on their own against the struggling FC Utrecht.
In Friday night’s game second placed Vitesse were held at fourth placed Feyenoord giving Ajax a chance to extend their lead at the top of Eredivisie. However, Frank de Boer’s side dropped two points at Jan Wouters’ FC Utrecht side who were on a four-game losing streak before kick-off.
The hosts were roared on by the 19,245 inside the Stadion Galgenwaard and they nearly went ahead after just 8 minutes. Right-back Mark van der Maarel surged forward and combined with Stoke City’s Juan Agudelo, who back-heeled the ball back into Van der Maarel’s path who shot over. A minute later, Utrecht had another opportunity though captain Jens Toornstra, after the midfielder had beat Joël Veltman he unfortunately dragged his shot wide.
Ajax got themselves together after the two scares and started creating their own chances and central defender Niclas Moisander came close on 19 minutes. Danish midfielder Lasse Schöne curled a free-kick into the box from the right-wing and the Finnish defender rose above everyone and powered a header towards goal, only for Robbin Ruiter in the Utrecht goal to tip over.
The defending Eredivisie champions took the lead in the 25th minute and it was Daley Blind, the goalscorer. Blind started his career as a left-back but he is really excelling in his new found holding midfielder role and he lashed a low drive into the corner of the goal from 25 yards, the Utrecht crowd was silenced.
Only seven minutes, the scores were tied. Belgian striker Steve de Ridder, formerly of Southampton, deceived the Ajax defence to make it 1-1. A long ball from Ruiter was flicked on by Tommy Oar, the ball fell into the box, De Ridder slipped past Veltman, skipped the ball past Jasper Cillessen and slipped the ball into the empty net.
The Belgian nearly made it two early in the second half with a tremendous volleyed effort that gave Cillessen no chance of saving, but the ball smashed off the crossbar.
Fully aware of Friday’s result in the backs of their mind, Frank de Boer’s men pressed for a winner and on 57 minutes, they should have took the lead. Great link-up play from Thulani Serero and Viktor Fischer, eventually fed Fischer through on goal but the young Dane placed his shot the wrong side of the post.
Ajax had one last chance before the final whistle decided the draw, with Schöne lashing a volley from the right side of area direct from a long ball from Blind, but the midfielder’s effort smashed off the post and away to safety.
De Boer takes his side back to Amsterdam to face Groningen on Thursday night and with Vitesse facing the tough test of AZ Alkmaar on Tuesday, he knows that the champions could have another opportunity to pull away from the chasing pack, and this time the opportunity must not be missed.
TEAMS
UTRECHT: Ruiter, Van der Maarel, Markiet, Delpierre (Badjeck 59), Van der Winden, Ayoub, Sarota, Toornstra, De Ridder (Quesada 76), Oar, Agudelo.
SUBS NOT USED: Verhoeven, Diemers, Bjelica, Klabier, Van Velzen.
GOALS: De Ridder 33.
BOOKINGS: None.
AJAX: Cillessen, Van Rhijn, Veltman, Moisander, Boilesen (Poulsen 50), Blind, Klaassen, Serero, Schöne, Bojan (De Jong 65), Fischer.
SUBS NOT USED: Vermeer, Van der Hoorn, Duarte, Sigthórsson, Ligeon.
GOALS: Blind 25.
BOOKINGS: Van Rhijn.
FC TWENTE 3-1 SC CAMBUUR
FC Twente came from behind to defeat Cambuur 3-1 to further claim third place with a game in hand and just four points off the top of the league. It was a tough game for Michel Jansen’s side especially when Cambuur headed to Enschede full of confidence after turning over Heerenveen 3-1 last weekend.
Last week’s hero for Cambuur, new Nigerian striker Bartholomew Ogbeche controversially won his team a penalty that gave the visitors the lead. Tussling with Rasmus Bengtsson, Ogbeche linked arms with the defender while trying to pull himself back to his feet from a tackle and referee Pol Van Boekel pointed to the spot. Cambuur captain Ramon Leeuwin successful converted the spot-kick on 24 minutes.
Twente pressed for an equaliser with Luc Castaignos coming closest in the first half. Quincy Promes played the 21-year-old through on goal one-on-one with Leonard Nienhuis, but as the striker stretched for the ball he could only poke his effort against the post.
After the break, Twente were pushing the visitors into their own half and within 9 minutes of the restart the scores were level. The inspirational Dušan Tadić placed a right-wing free-kick into the box and Luc Castaignos powered a header past Nienhuis for 1-1.
Six minutes later, on the hour mark Twente had the lead. Tadić played a short corner low into substitute Shadrach Eghan on the edge of the area, the Ghanaian hit a low curling shot that bounced past Nienhuis to make it 2-1.
All three points were clinched 11 minutes from the end with another headed goal, this time Rasmus Bengtsson the scorer. Promes whipped in a corner to the front post and the big Swedish defender nodded home.
Twente now look to continue to their good run of nine games unbeaten away to Heerenveen on Tuesday evening.
TEAMS
TWENTE: Marsman, Rosales, Bengtsson, Bjelland, Schilder (Koppers 56), Promes, Ebecilio, Gutiérrez, Mokhtar (Eghan 59), Tadić, Castaignos (Borven 67).
SUBS NOT USED: Stevens, Djordjevic, Martina, Tapia.
GOALS: Castaignos 54, Eghan 60, Bengtsson 79.
BOOKINGS: Tadić.
CAMBUUR: Nienhuis, Van der Laan, Droste, Leeuwin, Van Moorsel (Mulders 61), Ritzmaier, El Makrini (Bakker 76), Ogbeche (Hemmen 61), Manu, Lukoki.
SUBS NOT USED: Zeinstra, Van Boxel, Pereira, Feldballe.
GOALS: Leeuwin 25.
BOOKINGS: Bijker, Van der Laan, Lukoki.
NEC NIJMEGEN 1-1 GO AHEAD EAGLES
NEC and Go Ahead Eagles shared the points in a poor game, but it was a result that saw the home side lift off the bottom of the Eredivisie standings.
The Nijmegen side will be disappointed not to grab all three points after leading for the majority of the game. They took an early lead with English striker Michael Higdon notching his eighth goal in 16 appearances after just five minutes gone.
Go Ahead did not grab an equalising goal until just before the hour mark with Deniz Türüç smashing home the goal of the weekend from 30 yards out.
TEAMS
NEC: Johnsson, Vermijl, Van Eijden, Haitz, Conboy, Mulder (Foor 61), Rieks, Štefánik (Leiwakabessy 50), Hemlein, Higdon, Jantscher (Jahanbakhsh 73).
SUBS NOT USED: Smits, Nielsen, Gravenberch, Castillion.
GOALS: Higdon 5.
BOOKINGS: Conboy.
GO AHEAD: Ter Mate, Schmidt, Vriends, Van der Linden, Schenk (Haps 78), Overgoor, Falkenburg, Türüç, Antonia (Rijsdijk 89), Kolder, Houtkoop (Godee 86).
SUBS NOT USED: Lucas, Amevor, Lambooij, Pot.
GOALS: Türüç 58.
BOOKINGS: Haps.
RKC WAALWIJK 2-0 PSV
In what has become a bogey ground for PSV, the Mandemakers Stadion has haunted the Eindhoven side again. Former Celtic midfielder Evander Sno hit a double to give Phillip Cocu yet another embarrassing defeat.
It was a case of the same old story for PSV with a total of 8 shots on target and 12 off with no goals. It is strange to say that PSV are struggling to score goals when you think of years past, but with only three goals in the last four goals, Cocu’s side could definitely do with something different up front.
PSV’s most dangerous man was Memphis Depay and he came the closest to scoring throughout, in fact he has 12 shots in total himself, and with only four being off target, that made all PSV’s shots on target being Depay’s.
The Eindhoven dominated with 69% of the possession and the majority coming in the first half, and PSV were unlucky not to be awarded a spot-kick on 23 minutes. Depay again causing trouble in the RKC area, and after he turned Michael Lamey inside out, the defender tugged Depay’s shirt and pulled him down but referee Bas Nijhuis deemed it not to be a foul.
After the interval, it was more of the same for PSV but Cocu had ordered his side to play higher up and it cost them on 54 minutes. Bursting out on the counter attack, Aurelien Joachim and Damiano Schet combined to play in Evander Sno down on the right-wing. The 26-year-old midfielder cut inside, kept his shot low and nutmegged PSV goalie Jeroen Zoet to send the Mandemakers Stadion into raptures.
Philip Cocu brought out attacking pair Zakaria Bakkali and Florian Jozefzoon to try and inject some energy in front of goal but the more PSV attacked, RKC sprung the counter.
It was all over deep into stoppage time when substitute Daniel de Ridder slipped in fellow sub Jean-David Beauguet on the left. The Frenchman pulled the ball back to Sno on the edge of the box who confidently side-footed a first-time effort past Zoet to end the game for PSV.
TEAMS
RKC: Šeda, Lamey, Van Hoevelen, Amieux, Gouano, Anderson (Jungschläger 78), Duits, Sno, Castelen (De Ridder 72), Schet, Joachim (Beauguel 88).
SUBS NOT USED: Van Dijk, Ivens, Tavares, Apau.
GOALS: Sno 54, 90.
BOOKINGS: Lamey.
PSV: Zoet, Willems, Rekik, Bruma, Arias, Maher (Bakkali 76), Schaars, Park, Depay, Locadia, Narsingh (Jozefzoon 76)
SUBS NOT USED: Tyton, Zanka Jørgensen, Brenet, Hiljemark, Hendrix.
GOALS: None.
BOOKINGS: None.
STANDINGS
League table courtesy of FIFA.com
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