De Jong proud of coefficient march – End of season for Utrechter Hendriks

Wonderful night for goal scorer Wieffer

Back to yesterday, to Feyenoord’s fine victory over AS Roma, in the quarterfinals of the Europa League.

Mats Wieffer was briefly the schlemiel at the end of the first half against AS Roma, after an unfortunate handball resulted in a penalty against. In the second half, on the contrary, he had every reason to cheer. The 23-year-old midfielder, who made his Orange debut against Gibraltar at the end of March, scored handsomely shortly after halftime.

“I always hear that I should shoot more often. At that moment I had time to think and I thought: I’ll shoot in one shot, even if it goes out of the stadium. I did that once before and then the ball went in too, so maybe I should do it more often. It went in nicely.”

Haller says goodbye to Ajax fans

Sébastien Haller will say goodbye to Ajax fans on Sunday evening prior to Ajax – FC Emmen. The French-Ivorian striker left this summer after a season and a half for Borussia Dortmund.

Shortly after his transfer, Haller was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The striker has since recovered from that and in recent weeks he has been playing regularly in the starting lineup at Dortmund.

Two direct CL tickets are in, De Jonge is happy

It already looked good yesterday after Feyenoord’s win over AS Roma and became certain after Sporting CP’s 1-0 defeat against Juventus: based on the UEFA coefficient list, the Netherlands can count on two direct Champions League starting points from the 2024/2025 season.

That means that next season, for the first time in 23 years, the Netherlands will compete for a total of three Champions League tickets. After all, the number three of the 2023/2024 premier league season will advance to the third preliminary round of the billion-dollar ball.

This season in the premier league, only the first (group stage) and second place (preliminary rounds) entitle to Champions League soccer. The extra ticket is in, as the Netherlands has now definitively taken over sixth place on the coefficient list from Portugal.

Eredivisie chief Jan de Jonge is as proud as a peacock of that sixth spot. “This is because of the extra European tickets incredibly important for the attractiveness of the Eredivisie, the commercial growth and financial stability of the clubs, the development and value of players, and the attraction for new talents. Now we must work together to ensure that we retain this spot.”

“Together we have put the importance of European soccer at the center by agreeing, among other things, that all clubs in the Eredivisie commit to cooperate with requests to reschedule matches in the interest of an optimal match schedule for the European playing clubs.”

The later entry of the European playing clubs into the KNVB Cup and the collective decision to promote playing on natural grass also contributed to the common goal of becoming a stronger Dutch league.”

End of season for Utrechter Hendriks

FC Utrecht will have to do without Ramon Hendriks for the rest of the season. The 21-year-old defender suffered a knee injury last week in the away match with FC Groningen and must rehabilitate for several months.

It is the second serious injury for Hendriks in a short time. The Feyenoord mercenary suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the summer just before his transfer. He only made his debut for Utrecht last month.

Hendriks was one of three injured players who dropped out of FC Utrecht’s away game with FC Groningen in quick succession: