Two goals from Christian Santos led NEC Nijmegen to a deserved 2-0 victory over Heerenveen on Friday evening.
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Heerenveen boss Dwight Lodeweges would have been looking for a response from his side after the 3-1 derby defeat to Groningen last week, but from the start they were overrun by an energetic NEC Nijmegen.
Navorone Foor headed just over before the opening goal did come for the hosts on 18 minutes, as Heerenveen failed to clear a routine cross and Christian Santos fired into the bottom corner from just inside the box.
Just after the half hour mark Marcel Ritzmaier saw a free kick just tipped past the post as NEC continued to dominate, and seven minutes before the break Lodeweges had seen enough, hooking off both Henk Veerman and Canar Cavlan for Tarik Kada and Kenny Otigba.
The changes barely effected the flow of the game and NEC nearly made it 2-0 early in the second half but Foor fired Ritzmaier’s cross just wide of the goal.
Heerenveen finally created a good chance on the hour mark but Luciano Slagveer just missed Kada’s ball across goal, while at the other end Foor somehow struck the ball against the post with the goal gaping. Slagveer then had a decent shout for a penalty turned down before Santos made it 2-0 for NEC, with the attacker converting a corner from close range.
NEC rise to seventh in the table while Heerenveen remain 11th.