Ten-man ADO Den Haag shocked high-flying Feyenoord 1-0 on Sunday thanks to a stunning own goal from Sven van Beek.
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Feyenoord went into the game full of confidence after the midweek victory over Ajax, and they were heavy favourites to see off ADO Den Haag, who hadn’t tasted victory since the second Eredivisie game-week in August.
However from the start Feyenoord looked uncharacteristically poor, and they only created once chance during an even first half with Terence Kongolo heading over unmarked. At the other end ADO Den Haag looked much more threatening with Mike Havenaar flicking a chance just wide in the first half before sending another effort onto the bar after the break.
The deadlock was eventually broken on 69 minutes in bizarre fashion with an unchallenged Sven van Beek slicing a routine clearance into his own net to give ADO Den Haag a shock lead. It was Van Beek’s fifth own goal in the Eredivisie: a stunning statistic considering the centre back is only 21.
Feyenoord poured forward, and even though Edouard Duplan saw a straight red card for standing on Bilal Basacikoglu, the Rotterdammers couldn’t find an equaliser.
The defeat means Ajax now move three points ahead of Feyenoord at the top, while ADO Den Haag rise to 13th.
As good as the team played on Wednesday vs Ajax, that was how bad we played vs ADO. This game was a classic trap game between the 2 matches with Ajax. The team looked like they were still hungover from wednesday night and played like it. This was also the first time GVB did or should I say didn’t do, something all year that I disagreed with. This was the game to play the bench, rest the starters and let the hungry guys show what they have. I would have rested Kramer, Kuyt, El Amadhi, Kongolo, Van Beek and Vermeer.
In the grand scheme not a big deal, we win this weekend and we are back in first. But you can’t lose games like this and win the championship.