Feyenoord must fear for fourth place in the Eredivisie. Dick Advocaat’s team was beaten on all fronts on Sunday afternoon by ADO Den Haag, which had not won fifteen games in a row: 3-2. Nasser El Khayati claimed a leading role with two hits and thus narrowed the gap to number sixteen FC Emmen to five points: 19 against 24. Emmen will play against Ajax later in the afternoon. The gap between Vitesse and Feyenoord is five points after Sunday, making fourth place seem far away for the team from Rotterdam. Moreover, Bryan Linssen retired with an injury and Jens Toornstra had to retire early with two yellow cards. Toornstra is therefore suspended for the Classic next week.
The lawyer chose Róbert Bozeník in the point of the attack, as the coach did not have access to captain Steven Berghuis due to a suspension. Lawyer had also made a place in the starting eleven for Leroy Fer. This was at the expense of Mark Diemers, who had to settle for a place on the reserve bench. The visitors got off the starting blocks and took the lead after just three minutes of play. Orkun Kökcü delivered a measured cross to Bozeník from the left side of the field, who was left completely uncovered by the defense of The Hague and scored his first goal of the season via the bottom of the bar: 0-1.
Feyenoord played sloppy in the first half. The team operated at a much too slow ball pace and created few opportunities. A wrong pass by Fer led to the equalizing goal after fifteen minutes of play. The reserve captain played the ball through the ashes of the field, but saw that his pass could be intercepted by Vicente Besuijen, who immediately sent Jonas Arweiler into the depths. The striker did not fail face to face with Justin Bijlow and hit diagonally: 1-1. After Linssen then retired with a groin injury, El Khayati gave ADO the lead from the penalty spot. The midfielder was allowed to build from eleven meters after a push from Marcos Senesi towards Milan van Ewijk: 2-1. For El Khayati, it was his first goal for ADO since May 2019.
The fact that Lawyer was not satisfied with the game of his team in the first half, was evident from the fact that he took the break to make three changes. Ridgeciano Haps, Nicolai Jörgensen and Diemers were brought in by the coach, with which Lawyer switched to a 4-4-2 formation. It almost immediately led to more danger when João Carlos Teixeira, who had come in for Linssen, shot a meter wide of Martin Fraisl’s goal. Not much later ADO’s goalie had a good reflex on the goal line on a header from Lutsharel Geertruida, with which he prevented a certain seeming goal.
On the other hand, El Khayati was accurate. Once again, Feyenoord lost possession of the ball, this time after a pass from Fer to Bozeník. El Khayati was served by Besuijen, let Senesi slide past with a nice feint and then hit diagonally: 3-1. ADO pressed on and got an opportunity to decide the game through Youness Mokhtar, but the midfielder shot just wide. Moments after, Jörgensen brought the tension back into the game. The substitute headed home from a Haps cross from the left side of the field: 3-2. In the final phase, lawyer awarded Lucas Pratto his first playing minutes since January 27, but had to see how his team was not able to break down the Hague wall. Toornstra got his second yellow card deep in injury time and had to push in.