FC Emmen was relegated from the Eredivisie on Thursday after three years. The club from Drenthe lost in the semi-finals of the play-offs to promotion / relegation after penalties from NAC Breda.
After ninety and 120 minutes of play, there was 1-1 on the scoreboard due to a goal by Lex Immers (0-1) and an own goal by Ramon Hendriks. In the penalty series, NAC turned out to be the better: 3-4.
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The defeat means that FC Emmen will be active in the Kitchen Champion Division next season. NAC still has a chance of promotion to the Eredivisie. The club from Breda will play at home at 6 p.m. on Sunday against NEC, which won 3-0 against Roda JC earlier in the evening .
Emmen was promoted to the Eredivisie in 2018 and finished fourteenth and twelfth in recent seasons (although that second season was halted due to the corona crisis). This season Dick Lukkien’s team finished sixteenth, meaning it had to play after competition.
It was a miracle that Emmen was allowed to participate in the post competition at all. The ‘Reds’ had only won six points after 22 rounds and had not yet won a game. The comeback started at the end of February, as there was no loss in the eight games thereafter and a total of eighteen runs.
FC Emmen passed ADO Den Haag and VVV-Venlo in the rankings and was already sure after the penultimate round of play that it would not be relegated directly. The people from Drenthe also had a chance to avoid the post-competition, but Willem II needed to lose points on the final day for that. So things went wrong in the post-competition.
After all, NAC puts the lead
The opening phase of the game was for Emmen. The home team got an opportunity through Michael de Leeuw and NAC was pushed back, but the visitors still took the lead after more than fifteen minutes of play.
Thom Haye found the rising left back Hendriks with a beautiful through pass. Hendriks in turn put the ball low in front of the goal and Immers could easily make the 0-1 from close range.
After Mounir El Allouchi hit the side net, Emmen got the first really big chance after half an hour of play. Luka Adzic was found by Sergio Peña, but did not get the ball past the outgoing NAC goalie Nick Olij in a favorable position.
In the second half, Kerim Frei quickly got a huge chance to equalize. The attacker was able to play in a promising position, but decided to lay the ball wide, after which the chance was lost.
The pressure from FC Emmen increased, but a deluge of opportunities did not materialize. Lewis Fiorini on the other hand had the chance to score 0-2, but pushed the ball just wide from the edge of the penalty area.
FC Emmen comes alongside, but loses penalty series
The final offensive got off to a slow start, but ten minutes before the end, the 1-1 still fell: a cross from Caner Cavlan went to the head of substitute Nikolai Laursen and ended up in the goal via NAC player Hendriks.
Shortly after the equalizer, Cavlan also got the chance to make it 2-1, but he shot just wide. NAC had to go back and was happy that it made it to the extension.
In that extension, Emmen was the better team. Paul Gladon, Frei and Miguel Araujo had opportunities, but Gladon then had the greatest opportunity. The striker’s header went just wide of the goal.
After Dion Malone prevented a huge opportunity with a sliding in the final minute, penalties had to be taken. Quincy Veendorp and Peña missed on behalf of Emmen and at NAC only Malone did that. El Allouchi shot in the winning.
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