Excelsior’s defeat is good news for Heracles. With two matches left to play, the Almelo team has a six-point lead over the Rotterdam team. This means that Heracles seems assured of enforcement, although it still needs one point to officially play safe. Next weekend both teams will face each other in the Van Donge & De Roo Stadium in Rotterdam.
Tonight was a special football evening in several respects. Not only because there was a premier league match on the program on Monday evening – that was more than five years ago, but also because head coaches Marinus Dijkhuizen and Rogier Meijer were celebrating an anniversary. For the 100th time they coached a premier league match of their current team.
But of course it was all about football, because there was plenty at stake for both teams. Especially at Excelsior, the interests in the fight against relegation are high. The Rotterdam team collected points against FC Volendam (4-0 win) and Ajax (2-2 draw) and finally showed improvement after a bad phase, but also saw competitor RKC Waalwijk win 0-5 against Heracles Almelo on Sunday. The ball was back in Excelsior’s hands to come up with a response.
Excelsior program
• May 12: Heracles (home)
• May 19: Feyenoord (away)
RKC program
• PEC Zwolle (home)
• PSV (away)
That just didn’t happen. Beforehand, it looked good for Excelsior, because NEC was missing three strong players. Jasper Cillessen had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Robin Roefs, Philippe Sandler has not yet recovered from a hamstring injury and Koki Ogawa was passed by Meijer. However, it did not result in any great opportunities. In fact, apart from two good chances for Troy Parrott and Bram Nuytinck, the first half could also be dismissed in writing.
Things had to be different in the second half and so the throttle was opened. It first resulted in a shot opportunity for Julian Baas, but then the Kralingse danger did not materialize and NEC took the upper hand. In just a few minutes, Calvin Verdonk, Kodai Sano and Chery were all dangerous with a goal attempt. Chery’s also went in beautifully. Chery had plenty of time to score from far away and curled the ball with his left into the corner behind Stijn van Gassel. A beautiful goal.
Excelsior had barely recovered from the goal when it was already 0-2 for NEC. Youri Baas crossed from the left and found Chery at the far post, who shot in at once. Then things only got worse for Excelsior when Siebe Horemans was sent off the field. Referee Bas Nijhuis initially seemed to think that the Belgian played the ball, but after studying the images he still grabbed the red card. The match was therefore played.
Eredivisie season 2023-2024 schedule
View the complete Premier League program for the 2023-2024 season here, including all results. View the rankings here.
In the last minute of regular playing time, substitute Rober González set the final score at 0-3. Thanks to NEC’s victory, the Nijmegen team still has a view of fifth place, the position where Ajax currently finds itself. Exciting weeks are coming for Excelsior. A home game with Heracles Almelo, number 14 in the Eredivisie, awaits on Sunday. If there is still hope for direct enforcement after RKC-PEC Zwolle, the final round will be followed by the denouement in De Kuip against Feyenoord.
But the most realistic scenario is that Excelsior has to play safely through the play-offs, and no Premier League club wants that.
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