Relegated Vitesse wins against Fortuna Sittard and gets rid of a negative number of points | Football

Vitesse thus showed a surprising amount of resilience after one of the toughest weeks in the 132-year club history. Coach Edward Sturing’s team lost a lead, but then reversed a 1-2 deficit.

The victory is a boost for Vitesse in times of crisis, even though the club has already been played out in the Eredivisie after the historic eighteen point deduction. Vitesse has now gotten rid of the remarkable number of points of -1 in the rankings.

More importantly, Vitesse did customer loyalty in-house. The ailing club will start selling season tickets for the new season next month in order to complete the current year. Due to a debt of no less than 19 million, Vitesse is in danger of going bankrupt.

The fate of Vitesse has been in the hands of Paul van der Kraan and Edwin Reijntjes since the end of last month. The crisis managers must have been happy to sit in the stands on Sunday. More than seventeen thousand people had traveled to the GelreDome, much more than usual.

Chairman Susanne Wichhart of the Vitesse supporters’ association told NU.nl before the match that “Arnhem wants to show that Vitesse matters and that we must continue to exist.” There was no question of a funeral mood at all.

“With or without points, club love is real,” read a banner that the supporters showed in the Theo Bos stand, even when the score was 1-2 behind. After years under Russian rule, the Arnhem soul seems to be back at Vitesse.

After the relegation, coach Sturing wanted to give something in return to the thousands of loyal supporters for their support. The coach changed course for that. He passed Marco van Ginkel and Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, among others.

The interventions had an effect. Vitesse dominated against the weak Fortuna and took the lead halfway through the first half through American mercenary Paxten Aaronson. As if it wasn’t bad enough for Vitesse, Fortuna came out of nowhere at 1-1 just before half time via Iñigo Córdoba.

Vitesse was dejected and was awarded the 1-2 immediately after the break. Justin Lonwijk took advantage of a penalty after a tackle by Ramon Hendriks on Kaj Sierhuis. With the introduction of Van Ginkel after an hour of play, Vitesse bounced back.

The captain scored the equalizer halfway through the second half. Eight minutes later the stadium was turned upside down when Aaronson even made it 3-2 against the number twelve of the Eredivisie.

Vitesse still faltered after Giovanni van Zwam’s second yellow card ten minutes before the end, but was still able to add three symbolic points. With a knife to their throat, Vitesse appears to be a club with a right to exist in the stadium. Now in the boardrooms.