‘As if they had won the CL’


Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 08:55• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 08:57

Roda JC will also play in the Kitchen Champion Division next season. The Limburgers were eliminated on Saturday evening after extra time in the play-offs by Excelsior (0-2), after the first game had ended in a 2-2 draw. Roda turned a 2-0 deficit in that first leg in Kralingen and that was celebrated exuberantly with the accompanying fans. Images of those festivities served as a source of inspiration for Excelsior in the return, Redouan El Yaakoubi told ESPN†

Excelsior and Roda kept each other in balance for a long time on Saturday evening. After the regular time did not yield any hits, an extension had to offer a solution. Couhaib Driouech and Nikolas Agrafiotis shot Marinus Dijkhuizen’s team to the next round. “We fought like lions,” said a proud El Yaakoubi. “I don’t think anyone expected this from us. I saw in the comments on Facebook and Instagram that we would have no chance. We have shown that we can be very good, that makes me proud. If everyone is fit with us, we can we beat everyone.”

The fact that Roda JC exuberantly celebrated the point won in the first game led to extra motivation at Excelsior. The Limburgers took a picture with the branch and Roda’s supporters also celebrated it as a victory outside the stadium. “Guys already said it in the dressing room. Reuven Niemeijer said: ‘It looked like they had won the Champions League’,” says Dijkhuizen. “So I requested those images, on which they were partying, taking a picture with all of them, as if they had won. So that was the trigger at the end of the meeting and it seems that it helped.”

Dijkhuizen often had a fight with Jurgen Streppel on the side. Both trainers looked up to each other and made it clear by means of hand gestures that something was going on. According to Dijkhuizen, this is part of matches that are fought in the heat of the battle. “Of course I also played that final against Willem II with NAC Breda against Willem II (in 2016, ed.). I didn’t like this very much, I thought that gesturing with that hand was a bit arrogant. But I have to say: after the In the game he comes to congratulate me, the players too, I respect that.”