FC Twente tighten grip on third spot

Sunday 14 December 2008

FC Twente have tightened their grip on third spot this afternoon by beating FC Groningen 1-4.

For Groningen it was the fourth successive defeat.

Ron Jans, coach of Groningen had changed his center of defense by replacing Gibril Sankoh with right back Ondrej Svejdik, and putting new man Tom Hiariej on Svejdik's place.

The chances didn't improve Groningen defense.

The first big chance was for the home team but after that it was FC Twente who created all the danger.

After 17 minutes Eljero Elia degraded Hiariej and Svejdik to mere bystanders and served Marko Arnautovic with a simple tap in: 0-1.

Some four minutes later Elia scored one himself from a Ronnie Stam cross: 0-2.

Groningen then fought themselves back in the match towards the end of the first half and pulled one back just before the break via Goran Lovre from a corner.

That goal gave the hosts new spirit and they came out aggressively after the break.

Lovre saw an effort came back onto the pitch from the inside of the post and Petter Andersson went inches short of deflecting a Lovre shot.

Ronnie Stam then scored a third for Twente and broke Groningen's resistance.

N'Kufo scoring a fourth in the last minute of the game was a bit too much for the the team of Steve McClaren who did fully deserve the three points though.