Sparta Rotterdam booked a resounding victory in the Eredivisie on Vitesse on Friday evening. At half time, Henk Fraser’s team already enjoyed a 1-0 lead, which was further expanded after the break: 3-0. Thanks to the victory, the team from Rotterdam is currently climbing to eighth position and they are still fully involved in the battle for the playoffs for Europa League tickets. Vitesse is stuck in fourth place in the ranking. Only once before, the Spartans collected more than the current 43 points in one season: in 1995/96, the team, led by Henk ten Cate, took 53 points.
Trainer Thomas Letsch had no surprises in store, although he did change his team in five places compared to the won duel with PEC Zwolle (2-1). For example, Riechedly Bazoer, Jacob Rasmussen, Sondre Tronstad and Maximilian Wittek returned from a suspension and Eli Dasa was again fit enough to appear at the kick-off. Laros Duarte was missing at Sparta, allowing Adil Auassar to move to midfield and Bart Vriends in the center of the back next to Tom Beugelsdijk.
It was Sparta that prevailed in the first half and put the opponent under pressure through a few pinpricks. Early in the game, Beugelsdijk headed just over and Abdou Harroui shot half a meter wide from a distance. Five minutes after Bas Nijhuis waved away the appeal for hands from the Arnhem team, who saw Auassar got the ball in his own box, Sparta found the opening goal. On the left side of the field, Mario Engels was given the space to deliver a tailor-made cross to Bryan Smeets. The attacking midfielder escaped the attention of the Vitesse defense and nodded through the 1-0 between the legs of goalkeeper Remko Pasveer.
Just before half time, Vitesse took an offensive in an attempt to level the score, although Wittek lacked fortune and accuracy in the completion. Bazoer showed himself in the second act. More than twenty minutes after the break, the central defender got the leather on the edge of the sixteen-meter area in front of his feet, after which he lashed out hard but saw his shot explode on the crossbar. Although Vitesse clearly got more color on the cheeks after the break, fate struck fifteen minutes before the end.
As with the opening goal, there were problems, coverage problems in the Arnhem defense. Smeets found Lennart Thy from a corner kick from the right, who was released completely and nodded in diagonally: 2-0. This meant that the poison cup was not yet empty for the visitors. After a lightning-fast counter, Aaron Meijers had the opportunity to make a hard move at the far post, where Emanuel Emegha was standing to score the 3-0 final score.
| No. | Team | M. | W. | G. | V. | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajax | 31 | 25 | 4 | 2 | 72 | 79 |
| 2 | PSV | 31 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 35 | 65 |
| 3 | AZ | 31 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 28 | 64 |
| 4 | Vitesse | 32 | 18 | 6 | 8 | 16 | 60 |
| 5 | Feyenoord | 31 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 28 | 55 |
| 6 | FC Utrecht | 31 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 50 |
| 7 | Fc Groningen | 31 | 13 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 46 |
| 8 | Sparta Rotterdam | 32 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 43 |
| 9 | Heracles Almelo | 31 | 12 | 6 | 13 | -6 | 42 |
| 10 | Fortuna Sittard | 31 | 12 | 4 | 15 | -6 | 40 |
| 11 | sc Heerenveen | 31 | 9 | 11 | 11 | -3 | 38 |
| 12 | FC Twente | 31 | 9 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 37 |
| 13 | PEC Zwolle | 31 | 8 | 11 | 12 | -7 | 35 |
| 14 | RKC Waalwijk | 31 | 6 | 8 | 17 | -20 | 26 |
| 15 | Willem II | 31 | 6 | 7 | 18 | -30 | 25 |
| 16 | FC Emmen | 31 | 5 | 9 | 17 | -30 | 24 |
| 17 | VVV Venlo | 31 | 6 | 4 | 21 | -42 | 22 |
| 18 | Ado den Haag | 31 | 3 | 10 | 18 | -44 | 19 |