Jan Hoeksema
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FC Twente did not drop any points on Wednesday evening in the battle for third place in the Eredivisie. Joseph Oosting's team was better than Almere City in ninety minutes, but made it even more exciting with a sudden goal: 3-1. The victory now gives Twente eight points ahead of number four AZ, which will play on Sunday. Almere continues to participate creditably in the middle bracket with 33 points.
Twente didn't need long to get its own audience cheering for the first time. In the tenth minute, a shot from Sem Steijn was converted into a corner kick by goalkeeper Nordin Bakker.
The corner resulted in a goal: the ball was passed to Mathias Kjølø, who found the bottom corner from a great distance and scored his first goal for Twente: 1-0. Bakker was not completely free in this regard, as the stakes seemed tenable.
In the remainder of the first half, Twente was the team that dominated, but this did not lead to much danger. Almere was also unable to create great opportunities together and so both teams went into the changing rooms with a 1-0 halftime score.
Sem Steijn doubles FC Twente's lead: 2-0!#twealm pic.twitter.com/eBz9szwuPY
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) April 24, 2024
In the second half the danger again came quickly from the home team. Ricky van Wolfswinkel seemed to be going to take a swing, but he was brought down by an Almere defender. Via Damian van Bruggen, the ball then ended up at the feet of Steijn, who was still able to fire on the goal and scored: 2-0. The VAR looked extensively at possible offside, but because the ball ended up at Steijn via Van Bruggen – and not Van Wolfswinkel – the goal turned out to be valid.
About ten minutes later, Van Wolfswinkel got another chance. The striker made an attempt from the penalty area, but before the ball could reach Bakker's goal, Peer Koopmeiners managed to get a foot in between. So the score remained 2-0, but Twente was the team that had by far the best of the game.
Nevertheless, Almere suddenly came back into the match in minute 73. After a counter-attack, substitute Kornelius Hansen decided to try from outside Twente's sixteen and did an excellent job. Lars Unnerstall, who had only seen one attempt fired towards his goal until then, had no chance: 2-1.
The goal was the start of Almere's final offensive, but Alex Pastoor's team was unable to make much of an impact against the strong Enschede defense. In a counter-punch, the game was definitively ended by Daan Rots, who took full advantage of the fact that Almere had started to play more offensively: 3-1.
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