Vitesse’s Struggle Against Relegation: A Recap of the Vitesse – Almere City Match

NOS Voetbal•gisteren, 23:16

View the summary of Vitesse – Almere City

Vitesse has only partially succeeded in grabbing the last straw in the battle against relegation in the Premier League. At home against Almere City, they faced a deficit until the 87th minute.

Anis Hadj Moussa equalized in that minute and even scored the winning goal moments later. However, that attempt ended up on the crossbar. And so it remained at 1-1.

Because closest competitors RKC Waalwijk and Excelsior drew 1-1 tonight, the gap with sixteenth place is five points. And at least as worrying for the people of Arnhem: the matches against direct competitors are over.

NOS

In the first half of the season, Vitesse only managed to win twice: on the first matchday at FC Volendam and at home against Heracles Almelo. These are the figures of a relegated team, but the seriousness of the situation only really dawned on Arnhem on the last matchday before the winter break.

On December 17, Vitesse suffered a shocking 5-0 defeat in Flevoland against – then – direct competitor Almere City.

From bad to worse

While coach Alex Pastoor’s team started to steadily collect points after the winter break and rose to place twelve, things went from bad to worse at Vitesse.

View the reactions of Vitesse captain Marco van Ginkel, Vitesse coach Edward Sturing and Almere City coach Alex Pastoor below.

Does Vitesse still believe in enforcement? ‘It’s going to be difficult, but we won’t give up’

Things also quickly went wrong at home against Almere. After a mediocre opening phase, in which both teams limited themselves to exploring, the visitors scored 0-1 at the first chance.

Jochem Ritmeester van de Kamp went to the ball a little more fiercely than Mica Pinto and delivered the ball to Peer Koopmeiners. Kornelius Hansen served him with a simple pass and the Norwegian shot diagonally.

The VAR briefly considered whether Hansen had been offside, but the replay showed that Carlens Arcus canceled that option.

Pro ShotsCornelius Hansen has shot Almere City 1-0.

Shortly before half time, Vitesse scored for the first time through Anis Hadj Moussa. The skilled dribbler – who came over from the Belgian second division club from intended owner Coley Parry in the winter – put goalkeeper Samuel Radlinger to the test.

The Austrian was under the bar because first goalkeeper Nordin Bakker and reserve Stijn Keller are both injured. On the bench next to Pastoor were Jong Almere goalkeeper Joel van der Wilt and goalkeeper coach Agil Etemadi.

Radlinger initially had difficulty with a wobbly ball from Hadj-Moussa, but moments later he pushed a hard shot from the Algerian against the post.

Pro ShotsSamuel Radlinger, loanee from Austria Wien, made his debut at Almere City.

Anyone who expected a rush from Vitesse after the break was disappointed. Almere had the most and the best chances. For example, Room saved with a clever reflex on a header from Thomas Robinet.

And shortly afterwards the home team escaped the 2-0 after a ridiculous situation in their own goal. A bet from Yoann Cathline ended up against the own post via Ramon Hendriks, the rebound was a prey for Théo Barbet and ultimately the ball was crumpled into the goal by Stije Resink.

However, referee Erwin Blank disallowed the goal because Barbet had committed a foul.

Still Hajj Moussa

The longer the second half lasted, the more the Vitesse fans’ hearts sank. Until Hadj Moussa scored the equalizer out of nowhere in the 87th minute.

The crowd got behind it once again and was almost rewarded when Hadj Moussa beautifully curled the ball onto the crossbar.

Pro ShotsMexx Meerdink bows its head against Almere City.

In February and March, Vitesse had to do business against Heracles, Volendam, Excelsior, RKC and Almere City. But things turned out differently: the Arnhem team only managed to get four meager points from those relegation squatters.

A victory over Almere could have been the last straw, although a lot of water would have had to flow through the Rhine to avert relegation.

With AZ (away), Sparta (home), NEC (home) and PSV (away) as the next opponents after the international break, that seems a bridge too far.

2024-03-16 22:16:13
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