Vitesse suffered a narrow defeat in the play-offs of the Conference League on Thursday evening. On a visit to Rapid Wien, the revival of trainer Thomas Letsch’s team came too late to score a point: 2-1. The opening goal of the Austrians was already provided in the first minute by Ferdy Druijf, who is rented from AZ until the end of the current season. The return in GelreDome will take place on 24 February.
Riechedly Bazoer was absent from the Arnhem team for ‘medical reasons’, while Matus Bero was absent due to a suspension. The two most famous names on the other side were Druijf and Yusuf Demir. The latter returned to Rapid last transfer period after his loan period at Barcelona. The home team shot off the starting blocks, as Druijf opened the scoring before the end of the first 35 seconds.
False start for Vitesse! † Nota bene AZ mercenary Ferdy Druijf already scored after 34 (!) seconds for SK Rapid Wien. † ESPN #UECL pic.twitter.com/MUoNPKEI6W
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) February 17, 2022
Robert Ljubicic broke through on the left side of the field and delivered a flawless cross to the Dutch striker, who nodded in from close range: 1-0. It was the fastest European goal against a Dutch club since March 2017, when Ajax conceded a goal after 27 seconds in the Europa League match with FC Copenhagen. Rapid nearly doubled their lead in the fourth minute of play. Marco Grüll cut in from the left and turned the ball towards the far corner, but goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen saw the shot go just wide.
Rapid continued to look for a new goal afterwards and caused Vitesse to falter again in the ninth minute. A cross from the left was unleashed by the far out Houwen, allowing Demir to take over. He prepared for Druijf, who subsequently failed to place the leather of approximately 25 meters into an empty target. The 2-0 fell a few minutes later. Grüll received the ball on the left and Dominik Oroz in a childishly simple way. The winger was given free passage to the sixteen-meter area, put the ball in front of his right and then shot through the legs of Jacob Rasmussen in the bottom left corner.
And this does not seem offside… pic.twitter.com/WmlWzJVbB2
— Mark van Rijswijk (@markvanrijswijk) February 17, 2022
After doubling the margin, the home team took their foot off the accelerator, while Vitesse was powerless to create any danger in and around the hostile sixteen. In the second company, the visitors thought they would take the lead. A shot by Maximilian Wittek was not handled well enough by goalkeeper Paul Gartler, after which Adrian Grbic scored from the rebound. However, referee Donatas Rumsas took the questionable decision to disallow the goal on the advice of the linesman for offside. Although Grbic did not appear to be offside, the decision was not rectified due to the absence of a video referee.
Rapid came out dangerously on the other side. The ball caromed on the right side of the penalty area in front of Druijf’s feet, who lashed out hard but saw his shot explode on the crossbar. Vitesse’s chances of a comeback increased in the 65th minute of play, when Filip Stojkovic fought too hard around the center circle and was sent off with a second yellow card. Letsch’s team immediately increased the pressure on the enemy goal. After Nikolai Baden Frederiksen hit the post via goalkeeper Gartler, Loïs Openda found the connecting goal more than fifteen minutes before the end. The attacker dribbled from the left to the axis of the field and pushed the ball from about twenty meters away into the bottom left corner: 2-1.
The tension was palpable in the last ten minutes. Openda had excellent opportunities to equalize the score at least twice, but the striker lacked accuracy in the completion. In the end Vitesse still had seven minutes of stoppage time to find the equalizer; Rapid, however, did not succumb to the Arnhem pressure. In the final phase, Opende also took a stupid yellow card, which means that he is suspended for the return on Thursday.