SUNDAY 31ST AUGUST
NAC BREDA 3 – 1 PEC ZWOLLE
NAC Breda did not soothe PEC Zwolle’s European hangover with a 3-1 comfortable win in the Rat Verlagh Stadion writes Will Burns.
Breda started the brighter of the two sides with Zwolle looking lacklustre, possibly due to their 3-1 defeat in Prague on Thursday night that knocked them out of the Europa League. However, the visitors did create the first decent chance that Czech striker Tomas Necid missed. Bram van Polen supplied a superb cross from the right-wing and the 6ft 3inch attacker found himself unmarked in the centre, however he embarrassingly put his header wide of Jelle ten Rouwelaar’s post.
On the half-hour mark, PEC Zwolle experienced a major let off as NAC should have really took the lead. From a free-kick deep on the right, Zwolle failed to clear and the ball fell perfectly for Erik Falkenburg but Diederik Boer parried well from close range. The rebound was smashed off the crossbar by Isak Ssewankambo and bounced out.
It was a warning fired at Zwolle which they did not take heed off seven minutes later. On-loan Chelsea striker Stipe Perica finished a great move from Falkenburg’s cross that Ssewankambo nodded down into the Croatian 19-year old to poke home.
Although, Ron Jans made two changes at half-time to fire some life into his side. Jody Lukoki and Joost Broerse replaced Mustafa Saymak and Trent Sainsbury and within five minutes of the restart, Zwolle were level. Jesper Drost and Stef Nijland combined well to set up Necid to grab his first goal for the club.
NAC were not finished by any means and went on the attack and found themselves the lead again on 65 minutes after Van Polen fouled Perica in the area and referee Tom van Sichem awarded a spot-kick. After arguing with Perica on who would take the penalty, Erik Falkenburg converted superbly straight down the middle of Boer’s goal.
The points were sealed by Nebojša Gudelj side’s five minutes from the end with Elson Hooi blasting a shot past Boer after Jeffrey Sarpong had carried the ball forward and laid the substitute in.
A great win for Breda after a disappointing start to the season, but Zwolle will need to pick themselves up after the international break if they wish to compete for European places this year.
TEAMS
NAC: Ten Rouwelaar, Ssewankambo, Drost, Damcevski, Amieux, De Kamps, Falkenburg (Hooi 77), Matic, Boateng, Perica, Tighadouini (Sarpong 46).
SUBS NOT USED: Babos, De Roover, Seuntjens, Swerts, Van der Weg.
GOALS: Perica 37, Falkenburg 66P, Hooi 84.
BOOKINGS: Matic 54, Perica 72.
ZWOLLE: Boer, Van Polen, Van der Werff (Ioannidis 70), Sainsbury (Broerse 46), Van Hintum, Rienstra, Lam, Saymak (Lukoki 46), Drost, Nijland, Necid.
SUBS NOT USED: De Jong, Moro, Pereira, Thomas.
GOALS: Necid 49.
BOOKINGS: Necid 53, Lukoki 89.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Kingsley Boateng (NAC)
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