FC Groningen recovered from their defeat in the opening match against PSV (1-3) on Sunday. The team of Danny Buijs, with Ajdin Hrustic in place of injured Arjen Robben, was too strong for ADO Den Haag thanks to an own goal by Shaquille Pinas 0-1. After two days of play, the club from The Hague still has zero points and for the first time since May 1982, it did not score four home games in a row; at that time, it was five games.

In a messy initial phase both teams were clearly searching and the pace was low. FC Groningen’s first serious goal came after just ten minutes. Mohamed El Hankouri broke in and tried to shoot the ball into the far corner, but the ball went just past the wrong side of the post. As Buijs’ side increased the pace, ADO leaned back more and more and an unfortunate moment led into the opening goal after twenty minutes. After a cross by Bart van Hintum from the left, Pinas worked the ball into his own goal from close in, making it 0-1.

A wonderful story by Azor Matusiwa after half an hour of playing almost meant the 0-2: the shot went just past the post. ADO continued to play with little conviction, did not solve a single shot on goal and was lucky that the visitors did not score a second goal. Jörgen Strand Larsen headed off a short corner at goalkeeper Luuk Koopmans. Just before the break ADO had a good opportunity to get on level terms. After a foul on Vicente Besuijen just before the penalty area, Dante Rigo shot the ball from a free kick one metre from Sergio Padt’s goal.

ADO hoped to clear the gap after the break, but Aleksander Rankovic’s team ran into Heracles Almelo last week (2-0 loss) just one attempt at goal and didn’t impress at all on Sunday. Danny Makkelie spared Michiel Kramer early in the second half by punishing a charge on Ko Itakura’s calf with yellow. Ilay Elmkies, who came into the field at half time for Andrei Ratiu, was one of ADO’s better players in the second half, but he was injured on twenty minutes.

FC Groningen blamed it on itself that it had to stay with the class until the last seconds. Koopmans felinely turned a header from Ramon Pascal Lundqvist towards the far corner and not much later the northerners got another big chance. Tomas Suslov had a free pass towards Koopmans and laid the ball off Lundqvist, but the sprinting Milan van Ewijk prevented a countergoal. In the extra time Suslov failed face to face with Koopmans. Because the ball didn’t fall well for ADO, who shot zero on goal and had only forty percent possession, the game ended 0-1.