Feyenoord’s chances of progressing in Europe past the winter are all but over after they fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Feyenoord went into the game realistically fighting for third place in the group and a place in the Europa League. Giovanni van Bronckhorst brought Nicolai Jorgensen back into the starting line-up while Bart Nieuwkoop started at right back with Sofyan Amrabat moving into midfield.
The hosts started well with Jean-Paul Boetius missing a great chance in the first minute. Six minutes later, Tonny Vilhena’s fierce strike was saved and Steven Berghuis followed up to net and put Feyenoord ahead.
However, after the opening goal Shakhtar started to dominate and on 24 minutes, Fred broke open the Feyenoord defence with an excellent through ball for Bernard to round Brad Jones and net the equaliser. Jorgensen and Amrabat missed decent chances to restore Feyenoord’s lead and ten minutes into the second half, Shakhtar punished them with Bernard left free at the back post to nod in his second.
Jens Toornstra and Sam Larsson were introduced as Feyenoord looked for an equaliser, but they never really came close to it. A second yellow card shown to Yaroslav Rakitskiy meant Shakhtar were down to ten, but they remained dangerous on the counter-attack and looked the more likely side to score before the end.
Feyenoord’s loss means they sit pointless and at the bottom of the table after three games. They must now beat Shaktar in Ukraine in two weeks to have any chance of snatching third.
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