Feyenoord are out of the Europa League after a 1-0 defeat to Fenerbahce in De Kuip.
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Feyenoord went into the tie needing to beat Fenerbahce by two clear goals to guarantee their passage to the next round, or just win should Zorya beat Manchester United in Ukraine.
However, the home side started nervously at the back and they gifted Fenerbahce two early chances they couldn’t take with Alper Potuk firing into the side netting before Brad Jones denied Moussa Sow from the edge of the box. Eventually, on 22 minutes the Turkish side led as Rick Karsdorp’s poor defensive header gifted Sow a chance and he acrobatically guided the ball past Jones.
It was nearly 2-0 soon after but Jones made a great save to deny Simon Kjaer who was allowed time in the box to power a header towards goal.
The hosts eventually woke up with Eljero Elia lively down the left-hand side and just before the break Tonny Vilhena was inches away from making it 1-1 but his curling effort came back off the post.
With Manchester United leading Zorya 1-0 at the break, Feyenoord knew they needed a big second half, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst decided to replace Jens Toornstra with Bilal Basacikoglu.
The substitute got the first chance of the 2nd half but his close-range header was straight at the Fenerbahce keeper. After that Dirk Kuyt and Karim El Ahmadi both went close, but the hosts then ran out of steam.
Fenerbahce comfortably saw out the final stages to book their place in the next round as group winners, while Manchester United come second. A disappointing end in Europe for Feyenoord, who have lost their unbeaten start at home this season.
Well that stinks. I was hoping before the season for us to make a deep run. But once we landed in the group of death I figured this was going to be tough. We are not far away. Injuries hurt us but that is part of the deal. We need to improve our depth and attack. Not far away at all.
On the plus side now that we are out of the EL we will be better rested to defend the cup and win the Eredivisie!
This loss hurts Dutch football tremendously. At least AZ and Ajax made it. Let’s hope they can go far in the competition. As for the title, Ajax deserves to win because we play the most attractive football by far.