FC Twente has won in a disappointing match at Sparta Rotterdam. The game seemed to end in 0-0 for a long time on Saturday-evening. An unnecessary violation resulted in the Ron Jans team receiving a penalty in the final phase, which was used by Ricky van Wolfswinkel: 0-1. More than twelve years ago, in the championship year, FC Twente had won against Sparta at Het Kasteel for the last time in the Eredivisie (0-2).
The first half was by no means a spectacle at Het Kasteel. The chances to score were for the home team, although Dimitrios Limnios and Van Wolfswinkel did not handle them carefully. Limnios skilfully turned away from Adil Auassar and then shot the leather into the hands of Maduka Okoye, who had already been tested a few minutes earlier with a header from Van Wolfswinkel. Six minutes before the break, the Sparta goalkeeper also had little trouble with the attacker’s effort.
Sparta, in turn, was unable to assert itself at all from an offensive point of view. Henk Fraser’s team bit off a bit more in the second half and even almost took the lead. Lars Unnerstall, however, was not surprised by a deflected shot from Michael Pinto. After 67 minutes of play, there was finally a small revival at Twente when a shot by Wout Brama was a prey for Okoye.
It seemed to be a typical 0-0 match, but after intervention by the VAR, FC Twente received a penalty due to a wild tackle by Giannis Masouras on Michel Vlap. Van Wolfswinkel kept his cool and made his fifth goal of the season from the spot: 0-1. A few minutes later, a beautiful moment happened for Vaclav Cerny. The attacker is making his return to the fields after a period of ten months of injury.
In extra time, Unnerstall prevented the equalizer on a swipe by substitute Mohammed Osman. Due to the late victory, FC Twente is approaching number five Vitesse, which suffered a loss at PSV earlier today, to one point. Sparta remains in the danger zone. Fraser’s team remains at ten points and also fails to take more distance from number seventeen Fortuna Sittard, nine points.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PSV | 13 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 30 |
| 2 | Ajax | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 35 | 27 |
| 3 | Feyenoord | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 25 |
| 4 | FC Utrecht | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 23 |
| 5 | Vitesse | 13 | 7 | 1 | 5 | -7 | 22 |
| 6 | FC Twente | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 21 |
| 7 | NEC | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | -2 | 19 |
| 8 | SC Cambuur | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | -5 | 18 |
| 9 | William II | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | -5 | 18 |
| 10 | Go Ahead Eagles | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | -5 | 17 |
| 11 | AZ | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| 12 | sc Heerenveen | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | -5 | 14 |
| 13 | Heracles Almelo | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | -5 | 11 |
| 14 | RKC Waalwijk | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | -3 | 11 |
| 15 | Fc Groningen | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | -8 | 11 |
| 16 | Sparta Rotterdam | 13 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -9 | 10 |
| 17 | Fortuna Sittard | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -12 | 9 |
| 18 | PEC Zwolle | 12 | 1 | 1 | 10 | -15 | 4 |