Feyenoord records an easy victory over PEC Zwolle, Gimenez scores again

NOS Football•yesterday, 9:58 PM

View the summary of Feyenoord – PEC Zwolle

Feyenoord has recorded a comfortable victory at home over PEC Zwolle in the Premier League. They never really ran into problems and did not have to go all out to ultimately win 5-0.

The goals were scored by Ayase Ueda, Luka Ivanusec, Lutsharel Geertruida and Santiago Gimenez, who scored in the premier league for the first time in almost two months. The Mexican even did that twice.

The evening match in a packed Kuip, where the audience enjoyed the last rays of sunshine, got off to a slow start. There was little left at stake for both clubs: Feyenoord is already assured of second place, while PEC Zwolle is almost assured of survival.

Before the match, extensive time was taken to put a number of people in the spotlight. For example, Feyenoorders Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Gernot Trauner were honored for their hundredth match for Feyenoord, while a PEC Zwolle player also received a present.

Bram van Polen, the captain of PEC who is retiring after fifteen years of service at the club, was presented with a shirt by Feyenoord coach Arne Slot. Slot himself was also allowed to celebrate an anniversary: ​​it was his hundredth Premier League match as coach of Feyenoord.

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After the formalities, it was Ueda who broke the spell for Feyenoord. After more than half an hour, he was outlawed in the PEC penalty area, received the ball from Igor Paixão and calmly shot in from the turn. It was the second consecutive Premier League match for the Japanese in which he scored.

A few minutes before half-time the score was 2-0: Quinten Timber fired a long shot with which he seemed to score, but the replay showed that Luka Ivanusec had deflected the ball. The Croat was thus credited with the goal.

The pace remained slow in the second half. Both teams certainly did not play perfectly, but neither did they punish each other’s mistakes. Ueda even missed a penalty.

The Japanese was tackled in the penalty area by Zwolle defender Anselmo MacNulty and stood behind the ball himself. Ueda didn’t shoot it badly, but saw his penalty saved by goalkeeper Jasper Schendelaar.

The rematch followed fifteen minutes later, when Calvin Stengs went down in the penalty area. This time the penalty was taken by Gimenez, who had just come on for the unfortunate Ueda. The Mexican did not fail: his striking penalty made it 3-0 and his first Premier League goal since March 10.

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Ten minutes before the end, Lutsharel Geertruida also contributed. The Dutch international appeared at the far post after a corner from Feyenoord and pushed the ball past the goalkeeper.

However, the final score was again for Gimenez, who cleverly dribbled through the defense and scored through a Zwolle leg. With his second goal of the evening, he brought his season total to 22 Premier League goals. The last Feyenoord player to score so many goals in a season was Graziano Pellè in 2013/14.

Feyenoord thus recorded its 24th Premier League victory of the season, bringing it to 78 points, a total that would have been good for the national title in many seasons. This season, however, the Rotterdam team finished second.

Small consolation: the group stage of the Champions League is now certain.