Arne Slot has announced Feyenoord’s line-up for the cup smasher against FC Twente. The coach of the Rotterdam team, who will play the Classic with his team in De Kuip on Sunday, is making a number of changes in his starting eleven compared to the last league match against FC Groningen (1-1). Slot starts with Cyriel Dessers and Alireza Jahanbakhsh and keeps Bryan Linssen and Jens Toornstra on the bench. The duel between Twente and Feyenoord starts at 6 p.m. in the Grolsch Veste and is led by referee Serdar Gözübüyük.
The last time Twente and Feyenoord met in the battle for the TOTO KNVB Cup was in March 2010, when the stake was a place in the final. Thanks to goals from Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Roy Makaay, the team from Rotterdam turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 win, after which the final was lost against Ajax over two matches. Two and a half weeks ago, the two teams also faced each other. Then it remained 0-0 after a little uplifting game. On Wednesday evening there will be a winner anyway, be it after extra time or penalties. On Tuesday, NAC Breda, Excelsior Maassluis, ADO Den Haag, PEC Zwolle and Telstar already secured a ticket for the eighth finals.
“We are playing an away game against the number five in the Netherlands and need all our attention and focus to achieve a good result there”, Slot tried to focus on the cup match during the press conference. “It would definitely be a disappointment if we don’t overwinter in the cup. We would like to win and will do everything we can to get as far as possible.” Slot sees the fact that teams are increasingly digging themselves in against Feyenoord as a great challenge. “That’s the great thing about coaching: you can influence the line-up and the way of playing yourself. We have to focus on ourselves and see what we can do better.”
Slot chooses to change his team in three positions compared to last Sunday’s duel with Groningen. In the point of the attack, Cyriel Dessers is preferred over Bryan Linssen, who starts on the bench. There is a basic spot for Jahanbakhsh in the front right, which means that Toornstra also takes a seat on the bench. In the back, Lutsharel Geertruida starts on the right back position. He also started in the Conference League match against Maccabi Haifa on Thursday, but saw his place against Groningen again taken by Marcus Pedersen. The latter is kept aside by Slot against FC Twente.
FC Twente line-up: Unner stall; Troupée, Hilgers, Pröpper, Oosterwolde; Zerrouki, Vlap, Sadilek; Rock, Van Wolfswinkel, Misidjan
Line-up Feyenoord: Bijlow; Geertruida, Trauner, Senesi, Malacia; Aursnes, Til, Kokcu; Jahanbakhsh, Dessers, Sinisterra