Sparta Rotterdam has remade in the Eredivisie for the third time in a row. At home, the team of trainer Henk Fraser lost a 1-0 lead against Heracles Almelo: 1-1. The visitors came alongside by a goal from Rai Vloet, who was involved in a much-discussed incident with Adil Auassar shortly before his hit: the latter was shown a red card in a confrontation with Vloet.

Sparta managed not to go into halftime behind for the first time this season. However, that was just a statistic, as the best odds were in the first 45 minutes for the visitors. An early header by Sinan Bakis went wide and attempts by Orestis Kiomourtzoglou, Vloet and Silvester van der Water also lacked precision. Sparta could hardly counter this in an offensive way.

Sparta was also the lone team that was not yet in the lead this season and that changed two minutes after the break. A hard swipe by Abdou Harroui was too powerful for Michael Brouwer: 1-0. The ball seemed to go through the hand of Lennart Thy, but the VAR did not intervene. The VAR did come into action in a confrontation between Auassar and Vloet. The incident resulted in a red card for the former.

After a mutual duel, both players ended up on the grass. Vloet seemed to kick off Auassar, who responded by grabbing Vloet by the throat and kicking after. The incident had escaped arbitrator Serdar Gözübüyük, but after interference from the VAR, a red card followed. After the card it was Vloet of all things who brought Heracles to the same level. The midfielder was found in the penalty area by Kasper Jakobsen, who had just been in the field for a minute, and scored convincingly.