PEC Zwolle has reached the limit of 35 points. At home, Heracles Almelo, which had the same number of points prior to the match, was sent off 3-1. That victory was achieved thanks to goals from Lennart Thy, Silvester van der Water and Filip Krastev.
Thy breaks the spell
PEC Zwolle started the game well against their fellow provinces from Almelo. Lennart Thy scored the opening goal after sixteen minutes. He outsmarted Justin Hoogma and then hit the ball hard with his chocolate leg: 1-0. At that stage, Johnny Jansen’s men were the dominant party. Thy, Silvester van der Water and Anselmo García Mac Nulty all had chances to further increase the score, but the attempts went over, wide or Heracles keeper Michael Brouwer was in the right place to make the save. In between there was a beautiful banner for Thomas Lam and his family, who received a heartfelt support from the Zwolle supporters.
In the closing stages of the first half, Heracles pressed more. First it was Sem Scheperman, whose attempt was cleverly defused by Jasper Schendelaar. There was a downer in injury time, when Marko Vejinovic was in the right place at a corner to score the equalizer. The half-time signal followed immediately.
Namli steals the show
Despite the downer of the 1-1, PEC came out of the dressing room fine. The highlight of the first fifteen minutes after the break was a beautiful solo by Younes Namli, who rounded an opponent or three from his own half. The attack should have resulted in a goal, but unfortunately it didn’t. Shortly afterwards it was a hit. A turning cross was nicely extended with the head by García Mac Nulty. It was then a piece of cake for Silvester van der Water to score his first goal in Zwolle’s service: 2-1.
In the final phase, the Zwolle residents stayed on their feet quite easily, partly thanks to the vocal support of the Zwolle supporters in the MAC3PARK stadium. This allowed Filip Krastev to finally decide the match in injury time with the score 3-1.
Next Sunday, May 5, PEC Zwolle will visit Feyenoord. It does this without Lam and Namli, who both received their fifth yellow card and therefore a match suspension.
PEC Zwolle – Heracles Almelo 3-1 (1-1).
Spectators: 13.857
Referee: big eyed
Yellow cards: Namli, Krastev, Lam (PEC Zwolle), De Keersmaecker, Hrustic, Bruns (Heracles Almelo)
PEC Zwolle line-up: Schendelaar, Van Polen, Kersten, Lam, Mac Nulty, El Azzouzi (89. Van der Haar), Krastev, Velanas (65. Reijnders), Namli, Thy, Van der Water (79. Velios)
Heracles Almelo line-up: Brouwer, Limbombe (67. English), Hornkamp, De Keersmaecker, Vejinovic (79. Sankoh), Bakklop, Hrustic, Hoogma, Oppegârd, Leerdam, Scheperman (67. Bruns)
Score progression:
16. Thy 1-0
45+2. Vejinovic 1-1
69. Van der Water 2-1
90+3. Krastev 3-1
MatchWorks Man of the Match:
Thomas Lam
