Ten-man Feyenoord earn point in Moscow
Feyenoord held CSKA Moscow to a goalless draw in the Europa League on Thursday evening. Dick Advocaat’s side had to play much of the second half with ten men, after Nicolai Jørgensen was shown his second yellow card of the match not long after the break, but showed plenty of guts and organisation to come away with a point.
It was not the first time this week even that Feyenoord had to pull a result out of the fire after losing a player to a red card. Last Sunday, trailing to an early goal and forced to regroup after having a man sent off against Fortuna Sittard, they went on to win 3-1. In the fourth Europa League match of the campaign in rather tougher circumstances in Moscow, Feyenoord shut out their opponents. But the visitors might have come away with more, had they not spurned two huge chances before the break.
Jørgensen and Nieuwkoop close
The first of those fell to Nicolai Jørgensen who came within a few centimetres of getting the right contact on the ball to convert a Steven Berghuis grasscutter on the half hour. Sliding in just a second too late, the Danish striker ended up putting the ball the wrong side of the post with his right peg. After just ahead of half time, Bart Nieuwkoop had a similar lack of luck, getting his head to a Orkun Kökcü cross only to see the home keeper claw it away to deny him.
The biggest chance of the half actually fell to CSKA Moscow straight after Nieuwkoop’s header. The Russian side broke and Chidera Ejuke looked to be through on keeper Nick Marsman only to be foiled by Marcos Senesi, who prevented the speedy home striker from getting his shot off.
Two yellows make red
Feyenoord started the second period full of confidence after their first half display but were soon dealt a big blow. Jørgensen was yellow carded on 48 minutes for using his elbow in an aerial challenge, the same foul that had earned him his first booking in the first half. Two yellows make a red, so the Dane trudged off.
The visitors coped fairly well with their numerical disadvantage though, as CSKA Moscow found it hard to poke a hole in their defence. The nearest they came was a disallowed effort from Ilya Shkurin, who was adjudged offside. Dick Advocaat will be happy with the point though, as it takes Feyenoord up to second in Group K, after Dinamo Zagreb’s 2-0 win at Wolfsberger AC.