Arne Slot has announced Feyenoord's line-up for the match against Sparta Rotterdam. The trainer chooses to field Ayase Ueda, Thomas Beelen, Ramiz Zerrouki and Yankuba Minteh. They replace the absent Santiago Gimenez, Gernot Trauner, Quinten Timber (all injured) and Bart Nieuwkoop (who is on the bench). The match starts at 8:00 PM and can be seen at ESPN 1.

Ueda is at the forefront at Feyenoord, because Gimenez has suffered a minor injury. The Mexican seems to be able to make it to next Thursday's Europa League match against AS Roma.

Timon Wellenreuther is under the bar at Feyenoord. The German sees four defenders in front of him: Lutsharel Geertruida, Beelen, Dávid Hancko and Quilindschy Hartman. Zerrouki returns to midfield. The Algerian replaces Timber, who has a concussion.

The rest of the midfield has no surprises. Mats Wieffer and Calvin Stengs complete the middle line. Slot opts for Minteh on the right winger, leaving Alireza Jahanbakhsh to make do with a possible substitute appearance. Striker Ueda is flanked from the left by Igor Paixão.

Feyenoord has been warned, because earlier this season the reigning national champion had difficulty with Sparta. Feyenoord then managed to partially make up for a 2-0 deficit in the last fifteen minutes (2-2). “Just in that match it became clear to me that Sparta has very good players again this season,” Slot praises.

“They play good, well-organized football and based on that they have not always gotten what they deserved in terms of results. In addition, they certainly perform well in away matches.” Feyenoord seems to have to forget about prolonging the national title, but is firmly second and is considered the top favorite to enter the Champions League with PSV next season.

Sparta entered the winter break as number seven in the Eredivisie. The Kasteelheren are now ninth and this cannot of course be seen separately from the results in recent weeks. They lost at home to both Go Ahead Eagles (0-2) and PEC Zwolle (0-2). In between it became 1-1 at RKC Waalwijk.

The last time Sparta won in the Eredivisie at De Kuip was in 2000. Jon Dahl Tomasson gave Feyenoord the lead, but goals from Anders Nielsen and Nourdin Boukhari resulted in a stunt of Spartan proportions: 1-2.

Feyenoord line-up: Wellenreuther; Geertruida, Beelen, Hancko, Hartman; Wieffer, Stengs, Zerrouki; Minteh, Ueda, Paixão.

Sparta Rotterdam line-up: Olive; Bakari, Meissen, Eerdhuijzen, Warmerdam; Kitolano, Clement, Verschueren; Mito, Brym, Saito.

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