Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 9:53 PM• Rian Rosendaal • Last update: 22:09

FC Twente has one foot in the play-offs of the Conference League. The Tukkers had little to fear from FC Riga in the first leg of the third preliminary round on Thursday evening and won 2-0. Alfred Sampsted before the break and Daan Rots in the second half took care of Twente’s production. The return in Riga is on Thursday, August 17. If that game does not cause any problems, a meeting with Fenerbahçe or NK Maribor awaits in the play-offs. The Turks, with a starting place for the accurate Dusan Tadic, closed the first meeting with a 3-1 win.

In the first meeting with Riga, trainer Joseph Oosting could not have access to the injured Sem Steijn and Gijs Smal. This left Michel Vlap in the starting line-up, while Joshua Brenet moved to the left-back position. His position on the right side of the Twente defense was taken by Sampsted, who was very important for the home team in the early stages. Ricky van Wolfswinkel started on the left side of the vanguard and was assisted in the attack line by Manfred Ugalde and Rots.

Twente had the ideal start of the home inning in the third preliminary round of the Conference League. In the eleventh minute, Sampsted appeared alone in front of the Riga goalkeeper after a smoothly running attack, and then finished in a controlled manner with a nice marker: 1-0. Shortly afterwards, Vlap was still close to the second goal from Twente with a shot. The pressure of Oosting’s formation gradually decreased in the first half and Riga became bolder as a result. It was thanks to the alert Lars Unnerstall that Anthony Contreras did not take care of the 1-1 from close range. The sometimes invisible Ugalde shot just wide in the final phase. However, Twente did not come to rest.

The first chance of the second half came in the name of Van Wolfswinkel, who saw his effort disappear over Riga’s goal. Twente wanted to double the margin per se and kept looking for Riga’s goal. Goalkeeper Nils Purins, however, got in the way of the home team and showed his class with attempts by Vlap and Robin Pröpper. Purins, however, had no answer to Rots’ rock-hard rebound, after substitute Naci Ünüvar was initially prevented from scoring. Twente had a taste for it and it was thanks to the Riga goalie that Ugalde was unable to score 3-0. Nevertheless, they will travel to Riga next week with a comfortable lead.