Champion Feyenoord ends season with home defeat against Vitesse

Dutch champion Feyenoord ended the season with its second defeat. Vitesse triumphed 1-0 at De Kuip. Feyenoord only lost to PSV (4-3) this season.

The Feyenoord players, who celebrated the championship together in Ibiza last week, certainly did not throw in the towel, but the real fire was missing.

In the first half hour, Oussama Idrissi, Lutsharel Geertruida and Santiago Gimenez could have scored, and an Orkun Kökçu corner saw the ball go in via Van Ginkel, but the goal was disallowed because Geertruida was annoyingly offside.

It was waiting for Feyenoord’s opening goal, but just before halftime Van Ginkel scored at the other end and that goal did count.

Kjell Scherpen played a starring role at De Kuip. The tall Vitesse goalkeeper played an excellent game and was a big obstacle for the Feyenoord players on several occasions. He saved shots from Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Javairo Dilrosun, Neraysho Kasanwirjo, Quinten Timber and Igor Paixão.

Danilo seemed to be the only one who could outsmart Scherpen, but his ragged header was disallowed for offside. After that, Gimenez headed over twice more. Vitesse still had some great chances from the counter in the closing stages, but they were killed off.

Nothing was at stake for Feyenoord, only the record number of points in a championship season could be matched. A win would have taken the Rotterdammers to 85 points. Never before had the club taken so many points in a championship year. The defeat against Vitesse left Feyenoord stuck on 82 points.

Converted to the three-point system, Feyenoord collected a total of 83 points in 1969 and 1971. In 1973 Feyenoord also finished with 85 points, but then Ajax became champions.