NOS Football•yesterday, 10:17 PM
View the summary of Almere City – sc Heerenveen
Almere City and SC Heerenveen both ended up with a point in a leisurely match: 1-1. Almere City seemed to be on its way to its first victory in almost three months for a long time, but had no control over the final phase. Heerenveen came back and missed a penalty, Almere saw red in injury time.
With the point, Almere City comes one step closer to survival in the Premier League; That only in theory seems to be able to slip out of the hands of Alex Pastoor and his team.
Heerenveen makes little progress with the draw, play-offs for European football seem to be out of sight.
A victory would also have been more than Heerenveen deserved in Almere. After the defeat against PSV (8-0) last weekend, the team had difficulty competing against Almere City, which is trying to collect the last points to ensure another year of the Premier League.
Heerenveen’s starting eleven was shaken up: goalkeeper Mickey van der Hart, defender Pawel Bochniewicz and winger Patrik Walemark were sent to the bench.
Noppert is goalkeeping again
Andries Noppert got another chance under the crossbar, Syb van Ottele came into the team and Osame Sahraoui had to provide attacking impetus. During the tame first half, little was heard from the Norwegian attacker. but opponent Almere City was also toothless.
World Cup keeper Noppert did not have to make a save before halftime. At the start of the second half he was passed: Almere took the lead through Kornelius Hansen, after good preparatory work by Peer Koopmeiners. He misled his opponent with a feint before giving the assist to Hansen.
The goal hardly spoiled Noppert’s mood, he was happy to be under the bar again. “As a goalkeeper you want to play matches, so the past few months have not been fun. I am very happy that I was able to keep goal again and help my team.”
Goalkeeping at European Championships? ‘That’s not up to me’
His return to the starting line-up does not mean that Noppert immediately dares to think about the Dutch national team and the European Championship, although there was contact with national coach Ronald Koeman.
“That is not up to me. The people there in Zeist have enough football sense to make a choice. They know what they can get from me, but you have to show it. I have certainly been in contact with the national coach and his goalkeeper coach.”
Noppert is goalkeeping again and is in contact with national coach Koeman: ‘EC? Ain’t up to me
With an hour on the clock, Noppert proved that he could still keep goal after three months on the bench. He prevented the 2-0 with a good save on Thomas Robinet’s effort.
Equalizer Sahraoui
Heerenveen, with Paul Simonis replacing the ill head coach Kees van Wonderen, eventually got going. In the final offensive, Sahraoui again showed flashes of the beginning of the season. After two misses he scored from a difficult angle: 1-1.
A great opportunity from the spot, after a foul by Almere defender Yoanna Cathline, was not saved by Thom Haye. He shot the penalty hard low into the corner, but keeper Nordin Bakker went in the right direction and prevented the 1-2.
In injury time Koopmeiners received a direct red card. The Almere City midfielder was sent off for a rash tackle on the sideline.
