FC Twente sees win against Heerenveen slip through fingers in closing minute: 3-3

FC Twente and sc Heerenveen drew 3-3 in an attractive game. The number five of the Eredivisie seemed to win for a long time, but an equalizer in the last minute allowed the Frisians to take a point away from Enschede after all.

FC Twente, which had lost its last two matches, was missing two important players in its four-hundredth premier league match at the Grolsch Veste: Ramiz Zerrouki was suspended and Joshua Brenet was left out of the squad by coach Ron Jans for disciplinary reasons.

After a calm opening phase, Heerenveen took the lead after just under half an hour. Pawel Bochniewicz headed a Frisian corner and the ball then flew into his own goal via the thigh of Twente defender Mees Hilgers.

Two minutes later, Sem Steijn immediately failed to equalize for the home team: he rolled the ball into the stands from a promising position. The equalizer did come before halftime: Robin Pröpper was given all the space he needed after poor defending by Heerenveen to head the ball into the far corner, his first goal of the season.

The attractive play at the end of the first half continued after halftime. Already after three minutes the ball was in again for Twente: substitute Manfred Ugalde shot the 2-1 at just about his first ball contact.

The Croat himself headed a cross from goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall through to Václav Cerny, who then gave Ugalde the chance to score, thanks in part to a slipping Jeffrey Bruma.

Twente tried to press on and that led to another goal in the 55th minute, after a fine attack. Steijn served Ricky van Wolfswinkel with the outside of the boot, the striker laid back to Cerny, who made it 3-1.

The match already seemed pretty much decided, but things ended up turning out differently. After a fine pass from Anas Tahiri, the out of sight Milan van Ewijk was able to shoot the tying goal past Unnerstall.

In the last half hour both teams still had chances, but it was Heerenveen that came alongside Twente through substitute Rami Kaib – again from an assist by Tahiri – in the final minute: 3-3.

Watch the reaction of FC Twente defender Robin Pröpper: