Friday, March 4, 2022 at 10:01 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 22:09

Maduka Okoye had a big fight with the Vitesse supporters on Friday evening. The goalkeeper was on his way to a 0-1 stunt win in GelreDome with Sparta Rotterdam and was attacked by a supporter in injury time. Okoye wasn’t exactly impressed and chased the much smaller fan off the field again. The Nigerian international was then also hit by a beer thrown from the stands. Okoye pretended to be in a lot of pain, but it wasn’t too bad. The game was stopped in minute 92, with 5 minutes of stoppage time to follow.

After the skirmishes around Okoye, the Vitesse fans also threw a fireworks bomb at the field. The players were no longer around by then, but the bomb did explode close to a cameraman from ESPN, who said he felt ‘pressure on his head’. The man has visited the catacombs under medical supervision.

The match unfolded as follows: Sparta surprisingly opened the score after four minutes. Mario Engels managed to get the ball to Adrian Dalmau, who initially found goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen on his way, but in the rebound when the chickens were ready: 0-1. It clearly did not work out for Vitesse, which nevertheless still managed to create two good opportunities. Toni Domgjoni encountered Maduka Okoye from close by and Loïs Openda couldn’t figure out what to do with a free header.

On the other side, Sparta seemed to strike again just before half-time via Dalmau, but the goal did not last due to offside. In the second half, Vitesse once again had possession of the ball, but once again the team from Arnhem were unable to convince. Mario Engels became threatening on behalf of Sparta, only the attacker was unable to find a corner with his shot.

Sparta’s defense looked stable, but after an hour it ran into problems due to a questionable decision by Rob Dieperink. The referee punished a light push from Tom Beugelsdijk on Openda with a penalty kick. The latter wasted the opportunity and saw Okoye save. It took a long time before Vitesse got another shooting opportunity: Openda shot a falling ball harmlessly straight ahead in the 82nd minute. So the game is not over yet: there are still five minutes to play.