Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 9:52 PM• Jonathan van Haaster • Last update: 22:34

SC Cambuur has been officially relegated to the Kitchen Champion Division. The team of coach Sjors Ultee needed a victory to keep a theoretical chance of enforcement, but failed to do so against FC Utrecht: 0-3. Headers from Sander van de Streek and Anastasios Douvikas proved too powerful for the Leeuwarders. In the second company, Douvikas also made it 0-3 from the penalty spot. Cambuur is on sixteen points and can only change places with number seventeen FC Groningen. FC Utrecht is firmly seventh and can focus on the play-offs.

Compared to the 2-0 loss at FC Volendam, Ultee Roberts placed Uldrikis in the striker position. Björn Johnsen ended up on the bench as a result. At left back, Alex Bangura was preferred to Sekou Sylla. Mimoun Mahi and Navarone Foor had to take care of the threat on the flanks. On the side of Utrecht, trainer Michael Silberbauer had a basic place in store for Taylor Booth and Bas Dost. That was at the expense of Luuk Brouwers and Victor Jensen.

From the start it was clear that Utrecht has more qualities than Cambuur, although the Domstedelingen initially did little with the predominance. A setback for Utrecht was the failure of Dost. The striker went down out of nowhere and immediately indicated that he had to be replaced. Can Bozdogan then made his entrance and moments later Utrecht scored the opening goal. Van de Streek, who had started playing on 10 moments before due to Dost’s failure, nodded in a cross from Othman Boussaid flawlessly: 0-1. It turned out to be a sledgehammer blow for Cambuur. Not much later, Sean Klaiber easily trumped direct opponent Mimoun Mahi, after which the right back offered Douvikas an unmissable header: 0-2.

After the break, the first danger came from Foor’s foot, who saw his shot go a meter wide. Van de Streek, on the other hand, tried to score his second of the evening, but ran into Robbin Ruiter. Moments later, the goalkeeper made a serious mistake by choking on Van de Streek. Ruiter committed a foul in the box on the midfielder and had no chance with Douvikas’ penalty: 0-3. It was clear to everyone that the fate was fixed in Cambuur and Utrecht seemed to understand that too. Cambuur was also no longer awarded an honorary goal.