Feyenoord secured their third consecutive league victory on Saturday at the resumption of the Eredivisie against Excelsior. The team, led by coach Arne Slot, made it unnecessarily difficult for themselves by missing one big chance after another in the first half. Santiago Giménez missed the biggest of them all, but was still worth his weight in gold with a hat-trick, his second of the season.
Embed from Getty Images
After a two-week break due to the international fixtures, the Rotterdam derby with Excelsior for Feyenoord marked the prelude to the Champions League showdown against Atlético Madrid and the top match against PSV. This was the reason for coach Slot to keep Gernot Trauner on the sidelines, as the knee of the Austrian defender might not have coped well with Kralingen's artificial turf.
Slot added that Trauner might have played if it was a match on natural grass, and emphasized on Friday that playing on artificial turf is not necessarily a disadvantage, especially when it's wet. And it was. As the rain poured down intermittently. And it also rained chances for Feyenoord, but they were very careless with them.
Initially, Feyenoord seemed to be heading for an easy afternoon as Giménez put in a cross from Igor Paixão from a tight angle just five minutes into the game. After Mats Wieffer then shot at Excelsior's goalkeeper Stijn van Gassel in a one-on-one and Quinten Timber hit the crossbar, Troy Parrott punished those misses by breaking through alone against Justin Bijlow.
After Excelsior's equalizer, Feyenoord dominated again, but failed to reflect this in the score. Luka Ivanusec headed in a scrappy situation against Van Gassel, and eight minutes before the break, the normally so accurate Giménez committed the biggest miss of the afternoon by shooting over an empty goal after a well-executed attack.
So it threatened to become an unpleasant afternoon for Feyenoord, especially when Bart Nieuwkoop had to be replaced by Thomas Beelen shortly after the break due to a muscle injury. Shortly thereafter, the fit-again Yankuba Minteh also came into the team. The Gambian winger immediately proved his worth by setting up Giménez with his first action, who knew exactly what to do with this chance.
The Mexican's fifteenth league goal was soon followed by another. Timber seemed to seal the match after a one-two with Calvin Stengs, but six minutes later, Lazaros Lamprou brought the tension back after combining with Parrott. However, eight minutes from time, Giménez completed his hat-trick with a deflected shot, thus leading Feyenoord to victory.
Updated: 06:01, 25 Nov 2023
