Feyenoord lose face at last-placed ADO

There was no inkling of the pain to come in the early stages at the Cars Jeans Stadium in The Hague. Feyenoord edged ahead in the third minute as Róbert Bozeník repaid Advocaat for his place in the starting line-up with his first goal of the season, a bullet header. ADO Den Haag were able to scrub out the advantage on 13 minutes, however. The hosts capitalised on a sloppy Leroy Fer pass in midfield to break and Jonas Arweiler finished ruthlessly to equalise.

Nasser El Khayati left Feyenoord chasing the game not long after. The midfielder stroked home a penalty just ahead of the break to give his side the lead and then, with the clock ticking towards the hour mark, he netted again to pile on the pressure.

Substitute Nicolai Jørgensen pulled one back with 20 minutes left, but Feyenoord were unable to mount a compelling challenge in the closing stages. Lacking inspiration and with time running out, the visitors started to show their frustration, not least Jens Toornstra, who was shown a second yellow and was forced to bow out early

Toornstra had already picked up a yellow card to rule him out of next week’s home match against Ajax. That was bad enough for Advocaaat, who was already without the suspended Steven Berghuis. The availability of Bryan Linssen is also in doubt, after he hobbled off after half an hour.

With three leagues games left Feyenoord are five points down on fourth-placed Vitesse. Next week’s visit of Ajax is followed by an away game at Heracles Almelo and a home fixture against RKC Waalwijk. If Feyenoord do finish fifth, they will qualify for the end-of-season playoffs.