Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 9:59 PM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 22:04

VVV-Venlo booked the first victory in the Eredivisie in more than two months on Wednesday evening thanks to Georgios Giakoumakis. Hans de Kong’s team triumphed after a series of five defeats and one draw with 1-4 at ADO Den Haag thanks to a quartet of goals from absolute tastemaker Giakoumakis, who has considerably strengthened his status as top scorer of the Eredivisie. It is the first time that ADO does not win in eleven home matches in a row in the Eredivisie: the counter of the Hagenaren stood at ten home matches in a row without a win until Wednesday, just like in 1991.

The game in the Hofstad started no less than ten minutes later than planned: the uniform of goalkeeper Luuk Koopmans of ADO looked too much like the shirts of the players of VVV. Six minutes after kick-off, the home team also had to deal with a downer: after a foul by Shaquille Pinas, referee Jannick van der Laan pointed to the penalty and Giakoumakis drew 0-1 from eleven meters. Each of the last seven shots of the top scorer of the Eredivisie on goal was also immediately good for a goal.

In the remainder of the first act, VVV had little difficulty in maintaining the advantageous margin. ADO tried to find a hole in the Venlo defense, but Ruud Brood’s team lacked creativity. It was striking that it was not a hard first half, but Van der Laan reached for his shirt pocket three times. After the early yellow card for Pinas, Joshua John, Vito van Crooij and Boy Kemper also received the coupon.

In the first fifteen minutes after the break, the game went up and down, with opportunities for Simon Janssen, Vicente Besuijen and John. Scoring goals, however, was only for Giakoumakis: after 58 minutes Koopmans still got his hand against the header of the Greek, but it was not enough to prevent the striker’s goal number fourteen. ADO was able to give something back less than ten minutes later, when a bet by Daryl Janmaat hit the post and the rebound was used by Samy Bourard.

Giakoumakis made sure that VVV did not have to worry about the outcome of the match. After a miss by Pinas, Yahcuroo Roemer was able to take off on the right and he saw how Giakoumakis rounded off his cross effectively: 1-3. The sixteenth goal of the Greek came from eleven meters and not much later he was granted a public change by De Koning without supporters present. Giakoumakis is only the second VVV’er ever with four hits in an Eredivisie game, after Hans Sleven in 1959.