Feyenoord warmed up for the start of the Champions League group stages with a 4-2 win over Heracles in Almelo.
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The champions made one change to their line-up with the midweek Champions League tie against Manchester City in mind as Jerry St Juste made his first start in place of Eric Botteghin. However, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was forced into an unwanted substitution early on as Nicolai Jorgensen hobbled off.
The change didn’t effect Feyenoord too much as they dominated from the start and eventually took the lead on 22 minutes with Steven Berghuis curling a strike into the bottom corner. Just before the half hour mark it was 2-0 with Berghuis once again firing into the bottom corner from outside the box after being set up by Karim El Ahmadi. A deflected Jean-Paul Boetius effort made it 3-0 before the break but the visitors could have had even more with Heracles unable to cope with Feyenoord’s attack.
The hosts, who were without star-man Brandley Kuwas, improved at the start of the second half and Brad Jones had to be at full stretch to deny Brahim Darri, while Reuven Niemeijer was off target with two excellent chances. With 20 minutes left, Heracles did pull one back through Niemeijer, who nodded into an empty net after Paul Gladon’s effort was saved by Jones.
The goal sparked Heracles into life and with ten minutes to go Kevin Diks brought down Kristoffer Petersen in the box, resulting in a penalty which Niemeijer slotted past Jones to make it 2-3.
The end of the game was frantic as Heracles looked for an equaliser but in the 93rd minute Feyenoord sealed victory. With Bram Castro upfield for a corner, Feyenoord broke through debutant Sam Larsson who tapped into an empty net.
A deserved victory in the end for Feyenoord, but credit to Heracles for making it a game after the break.