FC Utrecht won 5-1 against Willem II on Sunday evening. It was Bart Ramselaar’s evening, who scored the first three goals. Due to the defeat, the team from Tilburg has to stop for the time being: the gap with the top four, consisting of Ajax, PSV, FC Utrecht and Feyenoord, is now four points. Utrecht is third and only three points behind the leader.
The game was ten minutes old on Sunday when Ramselaar opened the score. With a watched shot he passed Willem II goalkeeper Timon Wellenreuther. The FC Utrecht midfielder was looking forward to it on his own field: not long after his opening goal, he appeared in the enemy penalty area, but this time Wellenreuther had an answer to his bet. The keeper was unable to prevent Ramselaar’s 2-0 moments later. With a shot from the edge of the box, he made the home crowd cheer for the second time.
Willem II had shown little until the 2-0. Still, the visitors came back into the game via Kwasi Wriedt. After a sloppy loss of possession in Adam Maher’s midfield, Willem II winger Ché Nunneley picked up the ball and offered the striker a great chance. Willem Janssen could not stop Wriedt’s effort and goalkeeper Maarten Paes also had no answer: 2-1. The Tilburgers were then close to equalizing via Derrick Köhn. However, the left back saw his bet land on the aluminum.
With just under twenty minutes left on the clock, the game was decided by Ramselaar. He got the ball hard from Django Warmerdam, got all the time in the penalty area and then shot in his third. There was some luck involved with his goal, because Wellenreuther had no chance because Driess Saddiki changed the bet. As a result, Ramselaar made his first hat-trick of his career. He is the first FC Utrecht player to score a hat-trick since Sébastien Haller in February 2015 against FC Dordrecht (6-1). Mike van der Hoorn was no longer on the field at the time. The defender was hit hard on the head in a duel with Wriedt and had to stop the game.
Hat-trick hero! ?? Bart Ramselaar with his first hat trick in professional football! 3????
#utrwil pic.twitter.com/7qGMbLwuNg— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) October 31, 2021
Except for Ramselaar, it was also a match to remember for Mohamed Mallahi. The 21-year-old attacker came in as a substitute and put the 4-1 on the scoreboard. With a shot from the edge of the penalty area, he scored his first goal at the highest level. In stoppage time, the final score was set at 5-1 by Joris van Overeem. It means the seventh victory for FC Utrecht, which collected 23 from the first 11 matches. With this, René Hake’s team equals the club record from 1983/84, when Utrecht had the best start to the season ever.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajax | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 35 | 26 |
| 2 | PSV | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 24 |
| 3 | FC Utrecht | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 23 |
| 4 | Feyenoord | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 22 |
| 5 | Vitesse | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | -6 | 19 |
| 6 | William II | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 18 |
| 7 | NEC | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 17 |
| 8 | AZ | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| 9 | FC Twente | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 15 |
| 10 | SC Cambuur | 11 | 5 | 0 | 6 | -6 | 15 |
| 11 | sc Heerenveen | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 13 |
| 12 | Go Ahead Eagles | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | -6 | 13 |
| 13 | Heracles Almelo | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | -4 | 11 |
| 14 | RKC Waalwijk | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -3 | 10 |
| 15 | Fc Groningen | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -8 | 10 |
| 16 | Fortuna Sittard | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -8 | 9 |
| 17 | Sparta Rotterdam | 11 | 1 | 4 | 6 | -11 | 7 |
| 18 | PEC Zwolle | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9 | -14 | 4 |