Valentijn Driessen has been deeply impressed by Feyenoord. The team from Rotterdam reached the final of the Conference League on Thursday evening after a good stand against Olympique Marseille in the Stade Vélodrome (0-0, 3-2 over two games). Driessen praises in his column The Telegraph the tirelessness of Feyenoord and sees a different team than at the start of the Conference League campaign.
Driessen compares the victory over the southern French with a biblical story. “With Olympique Marseille, Feyenoord blocked the number two in France’s way to Tirana. David beating Goliath, the club with a budget of more than 60 million euros, which eliminates the four times more wealthy competitor – with an annual budget of 250 million euros. The loss of 76 million euros written in red by Marseille is about four and a half times the player budget that Feyenoord has to spend,” compares the football chief of the newspaper.
“It only makes the final place for Arne Slot’s team even more impressive”, Driessen compliments. The columnist states that the situation at the beginning of the year looked significantly different. “As the successor of Dick Advocaat, the trainer only took care of the team for the first time ten months ago. Against FC Drita from Kosovo, there was a serious threat of elimination in the preliminary round, but then the Feyenoord team picked up the ideas of the new coach very quickly,” Driessen recalls.
“With attractive, fast attacking play according to the Hollandse School and direct hits on the transfer market – Dessers, Trauner, Aursnes and to a lesser extent Nelson and Pedersen – Feyenoord was unstoppable internationally,” Driessen points out to Feyenoord’s successful transfer summer. “Slot forged a close unity, in which he made room for his own youth players Geertruida, Malacia and Kökcü while the Colombian Sinisterra had been walking around in Rotterdam for a while. The formation became mentally stronger and grew closer together as the game progressed.”
According to Driessen, Feyenoord has a good chance of winning against AS Roma in the final battle. “An amazing end to an unprecedented season, which is also good for 13 million euros in extra income. Or 15 million, if the final battle is won. And why not, after Feyenoord’s already unbelievably unexpectedly successful European trip? After a tour through Kosovo, Austria, Sweden, Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia and France, Feyenoord in Albania can claim the scoop for the third time as the first Dutch winner of a European Cup. After the European Cup I in 1970 and UEFA Cup in 1974 at the expense of Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur, AS Roma stands between the current Feyenoord and eternal fame.”