Fel Twente gives Feyenoord a rare defeat and climbs to third place

Feyenoord suffered its first defeat in the competition four days after the impressive home victory in the Champions League over Lazio (3-1). FC Twente, which had last lost at home to the Rotterdam team in the 2017/2018 relegation season and then drew three times, beat the defending champions 2-1 in Enschede.

Manfred Ugalde put the Tukkers ahead with his second competition goal of the season, after which Ricky van Wolfswinkel made it 2-0 ten minutes before the end. Lutsharel Geertruida’s 2-1 came too late for Feyenoord to turn the tide. For the Rotterdam team, who lost third place in the rankings to Twente, it was only the second defeat in 37 Premier League matches.

“Very disappointing as we presented ourselves here today,” Feyenoord coach Arne Slot, who also failed to win his fifth match as coach in Enschede, did not hide his feelings. “But during the match you can already see it going in a certain direction and then the anger fades away.”

“You know that Twente-uit is very difficult because of the quality they have, but also because the audience always supports it in a great way. So you have to prevent that from happening. But first there was that misunderstanding between Geertruida and Bijlow and then one of us slips and a deflected shot flies in. Maybe bad luck, but it completely fit in with the way we started the game.”

See below the reaction of Arne Slot, Ramiz Zerrouki (Feyenoord), Joseph Oosting, Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Robin Pröpper (FC Twente).

Feyenoord started with the same composition as last Wednesday and so Ramiz Zerrouki, who played 108 games for FC Twente until his transfer to Rotterdam last summer, was in the starting line-up. After the opening match against Fortuna Sittard, that was only the second time this Premier League season.

Zerrouki played strongly against Lazio, but also owed his starting place to the injuries of wing players Luka Ivanusec, who was back on the bench, and Yankuba Minteh, which meant that Calvin Stengs was once again relegated to the right wing position. However, it took a while before Wednesday’s star appeared in the piece in Enschede.

Twente started the game brightly and after six minutes Youri Regeer shot high after a misunderstanding between Feyenoord captain Lutsharel Geertruida and goalkeeper Justin Bijlow, who were counting on each other after a deep pass. A few minutes later, Bijlow still had no chance, when the launched Manfred Ugalde cut through David Hancko and shot through the shin of Quilindschy Hartman: 1-0.

It was only the second time this season that Feyenoord fell behind in the Premier League. At Sparta, Arne Slot’s men even fell behind 2-0 and substitute Leo Sauer saved a point in extra time (2-2). The 2-0 also threatened in the Grolsch Veste when Zerrouki suddenly played the ball into Ugalde’s feet after half an hour, but Twente failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

The struggling Feyenoord, which was constantly being hunted by the hard-working home team, had until then not gotten further than a shot from right back Bart Nieuwkoop, who had his sights far too high. In the extra time of the first half, Geertruida also had a shooting opportunity, but he hit the post and was also ruled offside.

With Ivanusec and Alireza Jahanbakhsh ahead of Igor Paixão and Nieuwkoop and Stengs in the number 10 position, Slot hoped to be able to make more of a fist after the break. That soon almost had an effect, but Lars Unnerstall responded cleverly to a bet from Stengs. Shortly afterwards, Daan Rots shot narrowly wide on the other side.

After fifteen minutes, Stengs also left the side and his replacement Ondrej Lingr stormed towards Unnerstall a minute later, who had a good eye on the Czech’s effort. After Slot had brought in an extra striker with the Japanese Ayase Ueda, Ugalde from Twente headed wide from the point of the goal.

With emotions running high on both sides, Unnerstall saved once again from a close-range effort from Hancko this time. However, a failure by Twente defeated the national champion. Bijlow saved from Ugalde’s effort, after which substitute Ricky van Wolfswinkel was able to score on the rebound: 2-0.

Geertruida did something back in the 86th minute, after which Feyenoord naturally started the hunt for the equalizer. That did not happen in the hectic final phase. The six minutes of extra time also offered no relief for the guests who played too hastily, who were spared a 3-1 defeat because Michal Sadilek squandered a dream opportunity.