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Vitesse beat Feyenoord to battle for third place in Eredivisie

Xinhua, May 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vitesse defeated Feyenoord 4-1 in Rotterdam on Monday night to prevent the home-team from practically securing the third place in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Vitesse dominated Feyenoord in stadium De Kuip and took a deserved lead. After a through ball by Davy Propper, Valeri Qazaishvili scored with a long-distance shot. Jan-Arie van der Heijden doubled the score in the 31st minute, but Jens Toornstra managed to do something back on behalf of Feyenoord.

Toornstra controlled a cross by Rick Karsdorp from the right and found the net. Two minutes from half-time, Vitesse scored again when Feyenoord goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer punched the ball to Vitesse defender Rochdi Achenteh, who smashed home the 3-1.

In the second half Feyenoord pushed forward, but only in the final phase the home-team created some chances. A header by Colin Kazim-Richards was disallowed for pushing Vitesse defender Van der Heijden and Toornstra hit the post. Zakaria Labyad secured Vitesse's victory with a goal in injury-time.

After only two points from the last four matches Feyenoord are still on the third place with 59 points, as many as AZ, which defeated NAC Breda 3-2 on Sunday. However, Feyenoord have a far better goal difference than AZ. With 57 points Vitesse also remain in contention for the third position.

In the final match round next Sunday, Feyenoord will go to PEC Zwolle, AZ play at Excelsior and Vitesse host FC Utrecht.

The third placed team on the final ranking after 34 match rounds will qualify for the Europa League, while the other two teams will continue in the play-offs for a place in the Europa League with PEC Zwolle and sc Heerenveen.

Dutch Cup winners FC Groningen, currently ranked on the 8th position, are already certain of a Europa League berth.

Monday's match between Feyenoord and Vitesse was originally scheduled for one day earlier, but Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb prohibited the match on Sunday because he could not guarantee the safety of players and supporters due to a police strike during and ahead of the match.

All other eight games of the 33rd Eredivisie match round were played on Sunday. Champions PSV beat Heracles Almelo 2-0, number two Ajax was too strong for SC Cambuur (3-0), Dutch Cup winners FC Groningen lost 1-0 at home to PEC Zwolle in a rematch of the Cup final, FC Twente beat FC Dordrecht 3-0, FC Utrecht drew 2-2 against Excelsior, Go Ahead Eagles and sc Heerenveen drew 1-1 and Willem II beat ADO Den Haag 1-0.

With the draw at FC Utrecht and the loss of NAC Breda at AZ, Excelsior secured another year at the highest Dutch level. As number sixteen and seventeen on the ranking, NAC and Go Ahead Eagles now continue in the promotion/relegation play-offs and bottom side FC Dordrecht drops to the second level. Endi