Willem II booked a convincing victory over Vitesse in the Eredivisie on Sunday afternoon. A week after the 0-4 defeat against Feyenoord on the first match day, the team of coach Fred Grim was 0-3 too strong in GelreDome, where the thoughts were clearly with the reunion with Anderlecht in the Conference League next Thursday. Eli Dasa, Riechedly Bazoer, Nikolai Frederiksen, Yann Gboho and Oussama Darfalou started on the bench at Vitesse, which started the competition with a 0-1 win at PEC Zwolle.
The first real chance, after an opening phase in which both teams mainly lost the ball, was for Willem II. Kwasi Wriedt got the ball into the box and then went for his own success, but his shot was blocked. A minute later it was still hit. Wriedt headed in from close range from a spiraling free kick by Görkem Saglam from the left wing: 0-1. A few minutes later, Wriedt was dangerous again with a header on the crossbar, but the attacker was called back for offside.
Old-fashioned bumblebees around the branch in the Gelredome. The testosterone supporters who are banging like Bokitos on both sides of a plastic wall have long missed that. Not really what they mean by watching a match in The Hague. #vitwil pic.twitter.com/uxqnLsiJTa
— Jeroen Kapteijns (@JeroenKapteijns) August 22, 2021
Vitesse did not come in handy and had to concede a second goal after 36 minutes. Che Nunnely was sent off from midfield, outplayed the outgoing goalkeeper Markus Schubert and finished well: 0-2. Thomas Letsch’s team seemed to have been shaken up and created a few small chances, but the shaky defense continued to cause headaches at the same time. A mediocre pass from Wriedt almost went into the goal because Schubert did not intervene adequately and a shot from Dries Saddiki from distance went just wide.
Gboho and Frederiksen came into the field after the break for Romaric Yapi and Toni Domgjoni and Vitesse clearly came out better. The ball was passed quickly and the goal area of Timon Wellenreuther, who made his comeback under the bar, was sought more often. Loïs Openda failed to score the 1-2 face to face with Wellenreuther and after 67 minutes a goal by Frederiksen was rejected on Openda’s request. The VAR found offside.
Bazoer also came within the lines after 73 minutes, for Oussama Tannane, but the Vitesse storm had already died down at that moment. Wesley Spieringhs was only on the field for a minute when he headed Willem II to a 0-3 lead. That was also the final score in Arnhem. After the meeting with Anderlecht, Vitesse is waiting for an away match against Ajax, while Grim’s team plays at home against PEC the day before.