FC Emmen did very good business on Sunday afternoon in the fight against relegation. The team of trainer Dick Lukkien was 3-1 too strong for Heracles Almelo in-house. All hits came in the name of Michael de Leeuw, who personally helped his team to a new club record. Never before has Emmen succeeded in winning three games in a row in the Eredivisie. It also meant the eighth game in a row without a defeat for the team from Drenthe, which climbs to sixteenth place through the victory.
Both teams had to deal with a first blow before the start of the game, as Nick Bakker turned out not to be fit enough to play on behalf of Emmen and Heracles had to make do without captain Robin Pröpper, who also dropped out in the warm-up. The visitors got off the starting blocks better and got the first opportunity of the game via Noah Fadiga, but the right back shot into the fists of Michael Verrips in the short corner after a combination with Kasper Lunding. Emmen then got into the game better and was close to the opening goal after half an hour of play, when Luka Adzic tried with a shot from a distance after a nice solo. His attempt went wide of Janis Blaswich’s goal.
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Heracles barely got rid of his own half in the second part of the first half and was lucky that at halftime they did not look at a backlog. In injury time, Emmen hit the crossbar and post from a corner kick, thanks to Mats Knoester and Marco Rente. After the break, Heracles came out a bit better, but the team of coach Frank Wormuth was hardly able to achieve played-out opportunities. A shot by Lucas Schoofs could easily be caught by Verrips and a header by Fadiga on a pass from Rai Vloet ended in the side net.
On the other side, Emmen was accurate. Jochem Kamphuis showed no mercy when De Leeuw went to the ground after a minor offense by Fadiga. The referee put the ball on the spot and saw how De Leeuw took advantage of the opportunity himself by sending Blaswich in the wrong direction: 1-0. Heracles then went on the hunt for the equalizer and was rewarded ten minutes before the end. A high ball got stuck between Ismail Azzaoui and goalkeeper Verrips, after which the latter committed a foul on Heracles’ attacker with a karate kick. Kamphuis again pointed to the spot, after which Vloet signed for his fifteenth of the season from eleven meters: 1-1.
When the game then appeared to be heading for a draw, De Leeuw showed his class twice more. In the final phase of the game, he shot through the bottom of the bar after a handsome feint, to hit target again in injury time from the rebound. The striker reacted most attentively to a rebound and outwitted Blaswich in the short corner for the third time. With his hat-trick, De Leeuw boosted his season total from nine to twelve hits and helped Emmen to the third victory in a row.