This will be one of the toughest jobs for Feyenoord and coach Brian Priske this season. The last time the Rotterdam team, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst on the bench, was on the field of the Etihad Stadium (in the 2017/18 season), the score surprisingly remained 1-0 for City. A few months earlier, Feyenoord had lost 0-4 to Pep Guardiola’s team in De Kuip, then still hunting for its first Champions League title with The Citizens.
There is no such thing as coincidence, but sometimes it seems that way. Feyenoord will meet Sparta Prague, Priske’s former employer. Feyenoord closes the 2024 European football year in its own stadium. The 47-year-old Dane worked for the Czech club between 2022 and the end of last season. Feyenoord has no positive memories of the two previous home matches with Sparta Prague. In the group stage of the Champions League of the 2001/02 season the score was 0-2 in De Kuip and in the 2012/13 season the score was 2-2 in a match in the preliminary round of the Europa League.
The only time Feyenoord hosted Bayern Munich in Rotterdam-Zuid (October 2001), the match ended in a draw due to goals from Pierre van Hooijdonk, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Giovane Élber (twice). Despite the draw against the then title holder in the Champions League, Feyenoord did not survive the group stage (with Bayern, Sparta Prague and Spartak Moscow). The passage in the UEFA Cup tournament ultimately resulted in the last Dutch European trophy in May 2002.
Never before has Feyenoord faced OSC Lille, where former Ajax player Mitchel Bakker, former FC Groningen defender Gabriel Gudmundsson and Osame Sahraoui (ex-SC Heerenveen) are the old acquaintances. For Feyenoord, Lille, the current number four in Ligue 1, is the last stop in the competition phase of the Champions League. The French previously recorded good victories over Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
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