Feyenoord has taken three important points at home against Heracles Almelo in the battle for the direct Champions League ticket. On Sunday afternoon it was 4-2 for the Rotterdam team in De Kuip. At first glance, little seemed to be wrong, but the underlying data shows that the match could also have gone the wrong way.
Anyone who looks at the Match Dashboard of the match will see that Feyenoord was certainly not dominant in the home match against Heracles. Despite two victories in a row, the leak is still not over. At the same time, there are also positive signals in the figures.
1. Feyenoord escapes unscathed
When the match is simulated based on all shots, Feyenoord had only a 30.28% chance of victory. Heracles Almelo even reached 42.9%, which means the Rotterdammers did well at home.
Heracles’ expected goals (xG) were 1.22, excluding the penalty. A penalty usually represents an xG value of approximately 0.8, bringing the Almelo team to a total of above 2.00 xG. Feyenoord remained according to the data Premier League plots stitches at 1.83 xG. This did include Casper Tengstedt’s great chance, which was ultimately converted into a goal.
2. Oussama Targhalline is the driving force in midfield
The pass map shows that the return of Oussama Targhalline has clearly done Feyenoord good. The Moroccan midfielder, who was absent for quite some time due to the Africa Cup, immediately left his mark on the match and was the player with the most successful passes.
Targhalline sent 77 passes, 71 of which arrived at a teammate (92%). It is striking that 51 of those passes were made in the opponent’s half. He also delivered two successful key passes, both times almost resulting in a goal.
3. Successful tandem Anis Hadj Moussa and Mats Deijl
According to the passmap of 11tegen11 the tandem on the right flank, Anis Hadj Moussa and Mats Deijl, proved to be particularly effective. Not only was there a lot of mutual passing, the cooperation in movement was also positively noticed by supporters.
Deijl successfully sought the overlap several times, allowing Hadj Moussa to move in. The absolute highlight of this duo was the 3-1, with Deijl providing the assist on a beautiful goal by the Algerian.
Hadj Moussa finished the match with a goal and an assist. Deijl gave the decisive pass at 3-1 and also recorded 45 successful passes out of 53, of which 25 were in Heracles’ half.
