Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 6:24 PM• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 18:29

PEC Zwolle has booked a business victory on sc Heerenveen on Saturday. The Eredivisie game was characterized by the large number of absentees due to corona infections. In-house, the Frisians, who had to do without the infected Henk Veerman and Joey Veerman, were defeated 0-2. Due to the defeat, Johnny Jansen’s team (37 points) remains in tenth place in the rankings, while PEC (35) climbs to eleventh position in the Eredivisie. A painful blow for Heerenveen in the battle for the play-offs for European football; the people of Zwolle can secretly dream of post-competition football again.

Trainer Jansen chose Benjamin Nygren to replace Henk Veerman in the striker, while Rodney Kongolo did the honors for Joey Veerman. The lack of the two permanent employees was a big loss for the Frisians, as the Volendammers together were already responsible for 21 of the total number of hits from Heerenveen in the Eredivisie this season (39). PEC also announced on Friday that it had to travel to the Abe Lenstra Stadium, severely damaged: seven players tested positive for the corona virus and were not allowed to take action.

The opening phase was certainly no feast for the two thousand spectators present, as it took until the eighteenth minute before the first shot was scored on goal. Kenneth Paal tried his luck with a shot from outside the box, but goalkeeper Erwin Mulder was not surprised. After half an hour of play, the score was opened anyway. Pelle Clement saw his chance to shoot from about eighteen meters and did so with a successful slide in the bottom right corner: 0-1. The best chance for Heerenveen came just before half time, when Siem de Jong hoped to level the score but hit the post out of the turn.

The loss of Veerman and Veerman visibly had a major impact on Heerenveen’s game, which seldom became dangerous even after the break. PEC held out in a simple way and found the second hit halfway through the second act. Clement had a curving free kick from the left side of the field, which was extended with the head by Bram van Polen. Mulder was transfixed and saw the ball come in in the far corner: 0-2. The home team tried to force a breakthrough, but the connection goal was no longer found. It was the first time since April 2004 that Heerenveen did not score in an Eredivisie meeting with PEC.