NOS Football•
Go Ahead Eagles ended their Europa League adventure with a 0-0 draw against Sporting Braga. The Deventers finished 28th, while a place among the best 24 was required for the next round.
Go Ahead knew in advance that it had to win anyway to have a chance at the intermediate round. Afterwards it turned out that even a victory would not have been enough because of the results on the other fields.
Braga finished the first round in sixth place, meaning the Portuguese qualified directly for the last sixteen.
Historic victories
Go Ahead had made an energetic start to its second European main tournament in club history with six points after three matches. Away at Panathinaikos and at home against Aston Villa they won 2-1.
Then the situation came to an end with four defeats in a row.
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The final standings of the competition phase of the Europa League -
The final standings of the competition phase of the Europa League
The first goal attempt of the match against Braga could only be scored after 21 minutes. A weak roller from Jean-Baptiste Gorby could easily be picked up by Jari De Busser, the goalkeeper of Go Ahead.
The only achievement that the home club could counter in the first half was a shot by Evert Linthorst, which went over. Just before half time, Braga striker Fran Navarro headed just wide.
The game continued even after the break. Mathis Suray had a small chance for Go Ahead and Giovanni van Zwam was lucky that his header hit his own crossbar.
For example, Go Ahead kept a clean sheet for the first time in the Europa League. Joris Kramer, the new captain after the departure of Mats Deijl, praised the maturity of the team: “If you compare it with our first European match, we have certainly grown.”
Kramer looks back on the European campaign with pride. “I have faced so many different strikers who all have quality. It has been very educational for me. And I think that applies to the entire team.”
Trainer Melvin Boel agreed with those words. “If you believe in something together, a result is really possible. That’s where it really starts.”
“We started in Bucharest and we were very dominant there, but we still lost 1-0. We learned a lesson there by beating Panathinaikos in Greece and then you believe that you can really participate in this tournament and not just be the ugly duckling.”
