FC Twente escaped Telstar with a draw on Sunday afternoon thanks to a late equaliser from Marko Pjaca. Speaking after the game, Ramiz Zerrouki did not hold back in his criticism of how he and the rest of the team performed in the first half. As reported by ESPN, Zerrouki said of Twente’s first half performance; ‘You should really be ashamed of the performance we put in before halftime’.
Telstar took the lead during the first half through Sem Van Duijn and the side who were expected to really struggle this season will be gutted to not have held on for a crucial three points. With NAC Breda beating Heracles in the relegation six pointer, the loss of two points means that Telstar slip into 17th and the automatic relegation places. However, even if they do go down, Telstar have more than exceeded expectations this season. With such a small budget, they have still been able to compete with the best in Dutch football over the course of the season so far. They are five points adrift of Go Ahead Eagles and automatic safety.
For Twente, this is another missed opportunity to close in on the top four. They are now six points behind the impressive NEC Nijmegen and were unable to take advantage of the side losing this weekend. They do at least have a gap of four points to Groningen in ninth, meaning that a finish in the play-offs should be the minimum expected from now until the end of the season.