FC TWENTE (De Grolsch Veste)

EREDIVISIE, FC TWENTE 2-0 PEC ZWOLLE, ATTENDANCE: 24,900

My week's European adventure began in the Dutch city of Enschede with FC Twente taking on PEC Zwolle. After landing at Amsterdam Schipol it was a 2.5 hour train journey east to the city. After checking in at my bed and breakfast, it was back into town to sink a few pre-match beers at the fabulous Eet- en Bierencafé De Beiaard.

From the main train station it was a 10 minute train ride to the ground which has it's own station, Enschede Kennispark. De Grolsch Veste is coming up to it's 20th anniversary, having hosted it's first match on the 10th May 1998, a 3-0 win over PSV. The new ground replaced the Diekman Stadion, which was originally the home of Sportclub Enschede.

Tickets were purchased online, printed at home and there no need for any fancard. I sat in the upper tier of the East stand, which afforded a great view of proceedings.

The current club was formed in 1965 by the merger of Sportclub Enschede and Enschedese Boys. Steve McClaren led Twente to their only Eredivsie title in 2010 (here is that famously funny interview clip, which is always worth a view) which is their only title win in their history, though Sportclub did win the league in 1926.

Having previously survived financial problems in 2003, when the club's parent company went bankrupt, the club were provisionally demoted to the Eerste Divisie in 2016 for financial irregularities, having been docked points (and also banned from Europe) on previous occasions in 2014 and 2015. The club won their appeal and kept their position in the top flight, which they had held since 1984.

However this season their luck could be finally running out and the spectre of relegation looms large. The club are currently bottom of the table, which is the only automatic relegation spot. Tonight was a must win game but not an easy task when you consider Twente had not won at home since October and hadn't won a game in the Eredivsie since December.

This clearly focused the minds and amazingly Twente pulled a result out of the bag. They were at PEC Zwolle, who also needed points in their push for European football, from the kick off and never gave the visitors any time to settle. The only surprise was that it took 21 minutes to make the breakthrough, Jeroen van der Lely scoring when a poor attempted clearance fell to him inside the area and he side-footed the ball home.

Michaël Maria made it 2-0 ten minutes before the break when he raced onto a through ball and then prodded the ball under the advancing Zwolle 'keeper. Inbetween the goals there was a contender for miss of the season as, when presented with the opportunity to roll the ball into an open goal, Fredrik Jensen proceeded to blast the ball over the crossbar!

The second half was a non-event as Twente seemed content with their lead and Zwolle failed to test Joël Drommel in the Twente goal. The noise inside the ground throughout the match was fantastic and the supporters really got behind their team, maybe that spurred them on a little more.

The other two teams immediately above Twente (Sparta and Roda JC) also picked up points in this round of matches so, with two games remaining, the best Twente can now hope for is a place in the relegation play-offs. Even by winning those two games though, they will be reliant on other teams doing them a favour to reach the play-offs.

Unfortunately, I have to say, It does not look good for Twente and they look like going from Champions to the Eerste Divisie in just eight years.