Willem II booked a minimal victory in the Eredivisie on Saturday evening. In the Koning Willem II Stadium, the Tilburgers received a visit from PEC Zwolle, which was sent home with a 1-0 defeat. Görkem Saglam crowned himself the match winner by scoring the only goal of the game after 53 minutes. It was the third loss in a row for the people of Zwolle, who have not yet been able to score this season and conceded four goals. Willem II recorded the second victory in a row.
Trainer Art Langeler decided to strengthen the Zwolle defense and sent his team into the field in a 5-3-2 formation. Trainer Fred Grim was of course satisfied with last week’s 0-3 victory over Vitesse and left his starting eleven unchanged. That turned out to be the right decision, because Willem II already got the first big chance of the match in the fourth minute of play. Kwasi Okyere Wriedt received a custom pass in the box, but the shot that followed went just wide.
It was PEC’s first move in the eleventh minute of play. Pelle Clement saw room for the shot and instead of passing the ball to Eliano Reijnders, he decided to shoot himself: wide. Moments later, the striker was injured and had to be replaced by Chardi Mpindi Landu in the 23rd minute of play. The score was almost doubled five minutes later, when Thomas van den Belt clumsily lost the ball, but Wriedt failed to capitalize on the opportunity.
Shortly after PEC made another unsuccessful contribution in the second half, the ball fell on the other side. After a nice combination game, Mats Köhlert put the ball back on Saglam, who outwitted goalkeeper Kostas Lamprou with a slider in the bottom left corner: 1-0. An impasse then broke out, which seemed to be broken only in the eightieth minute. Köhlert finished coolly after a pass from the back, but his goal was rejected by referee Ingmar Oostrom on the advice of the linesman.