For the second time in a four-day window FC Utrecht defeated Heracles Almelo. Last Saturday the score was 2-0 in the Polman Stadium and tonight (Tuesday) the FC from Dom City defeated the Almelo players 3-0 in Stadium Galgenwaard. Head-coach Dick Advocaat’s team qualified in a convincing way for the finals of the play-offs for European football.
It was the cherry on the cake. Twenty seconds to go, and the match was already done and dusted. But then Jean-Christophe Bahebeck released a brilliant shot from the hips and beat goalkeeper Janis Blaswich once more: 3-0 for FC Utrecht!
Final blow
Substitute Bahebeck – halfway during the first half he replaced Riechedly Bazoer – gave the final blow to the team from Overijssel some ten minutes earlier. With a perfect shot into the far corner of the German goalkeeper he left the Heracles players scratching their heads. That meant: 2-0 for FC Utrecht, the same score as in the away match in the Polman Stadium four days ago. And Frank Wormuth’s team knew the score exactly: end of season. Defeated by FC Utrecht, Stadium Galgenwaard was the final station of the season. Resistance was broken.
Gustafson opens the score
Resistance was intense on this chilly May evening at Herculesplein. FC Utrecht were skilfully kept away from the Almelo goal. Think about it: during the first half the Dom City players did not manage to shoot on goal even once, whereas the Heracles players launched three shots on goal between the posts and under the crossbar. But David Jensen stood his ground and saw how another Scandinavian opened the score after some sixty minutes: Simon Gustafson: 1-0. The Swede used a penalty and set some remarkable statistics: in all four matches between FC Utrecht and Heracles Almelo this season, the offensive midfielder managed to score.
All or nothing
After the opening score the Heracles players tried to turn things around and strikers Silvester van der Water and Joey Konings replaced the respective defenders Tim Breukers and Alexander Merkel. This ‘all or nothing’ attempt of the black & whites did not bring many opportunities and gave the Utrecht players much more room to play. The two Bahebeck goals in the final stage tell the rest of the story: 3-0.
FC Utrecht - Heracles Almelo 3-0 (0-0)
57. Simon Gustafson (penalty kick) 1-0
80. Jean-Christophe Bahebeck 2-0
90. Jean-Christophe Bahebeck 3-0
Yellow cards: Mats Knoester (Heracles Almelo).
Attendance: 11,233.
Referee: Allard Lindhout.
Line-up FC Utrecht:
David Jensen; Sean Klaiber, Emil Bergström, Willem Janssen, Nicolas Gavory; Rico Strieder, Riechedly Bazoer (23. Jean-Christophe Bahebeck), Simon Gustafson; Gyrano Kerk (75. Mark van der Maarel), Cyriel Dessers, Othmane Boussaid (46. Lukas Görtler).
Line-up Heracles Almelo:
Janis Blaswich; Tim Breukers (69. Silvester van der Water), Wout Droste (29. Bart van Hintum), Dario van den Buijs, Mats Knoester, Lennart Czyborra; Mohammed Osman, Alexander Merkel (76. Joey Konings); Brandley Kuwas, Adrián Dalmau, Dabney dos Santos.
