Point a meagre return for Feyenoord in Groningen

After seeing his men go out of the cup at sc Heerenveen and not get further than a draw in the league against FC Twente, the head coach wanted to see a positive response in Groningen. Advocaat could certainly be satisfied with his team’s attitude at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion. Feyenoord looked to attack from kick-off and played some attractive football at times.

That generated several opportunities for the visitors in the first half, but none of them ended in a goal. Luis Sinisterra and Steven Berghuis hit the post, Orkun Kökcü had little luck with two good shots and Leroy Fer headed over a rebound. At the other end, Nick Marsman kept his sheet clean with a couple of good saves when the hosts countered.

After the break the Feyenoord keeper was a virtual spectator. The visitors dominated, forcing the hosts to switch to almost permanent defensive mode. Unfortunately, with less room to exploit Feyenoord were unable to create as many openings as they had in the first half. The biggest were for Sinisterra, who had a header cleared from the line and hit the inside of the post with a curling drive from the edge of the box.

That all meant that Feyenoord had to do with a point, a result that only Feyenoord’s rivals in the race for European qualification could be happy with. Advocaat’s men will look to ratchet up the pressure on Sunday, when they travel to AZ (kick-off 16:45 CET). The Alkmaar outfit are three points better off in the Eredivisie after 23 matches.