Feyenoord has dramatically started the group stage of the Europa League. On a visit to Lazio, the team from Rotterdam already faces a 3-0 deficit halfway through. The score was opened in the fourth minute by Luis Alberto, after which Felipe Anderson and Matías Vecino made it 2-0 and 3-0. Analysts Pierre van Hooijdonk and Kenneth Perez speak shame of the performance of trainer Arne Slot’s team.
The difference in level between Lazio and Feyenoord became painfully clear in the opening phase. Vecino had a nice cross pass on Luis Alberto, who outsmarted goalkeeper Justin Bijlow in a cold-blooded way: 1-0. The 2-0 fell before the end of the first fifteen minutes. Felipe Anderson was sent off on the right side of the field, simply passing left back Quilindschy Hartman. With a shot into the short corner he also outwitted Bijlow, who did not go unpunished. The 3-0 was in the name of Vecino, who took advantage of the rebound.
“It is painful that as Feyenoord you arrive late everywhere, but really everywhere,” Pierre van Hooijdonk said during the break. ESPN. “No grip at all, you are completely outplayed by a team that shows a fantastic positional play. Feyenoord has no answer at all. No aggressiveness. You also don’t see a reaction in the team when things go bad, and that was from the start. I also find it a bit loose sand. I also don’t see players arguing with each other, while enough goes wrong.”
“I think that reaction would have been there last year. You had a larger core of Dutch players with more experience,” concludes Van Hooijdonk, who is supported by Perez. “You always think: this must be the lower limit. But you play against the number nine of the Serie A, this is too big a difference.”