[Archived] Feyenoord 0 Rovers 0

[Nayef]

I actually agree with the passage below subject to very minor alterations.

Did you lot watch the game with your eyes closed or something..?? Even Sky thought Feyenoord should have lost.

Blackburn let Feyenoord off the hook.

Blackburn qualified for the knockout stages of the Uefa Cup after a battling goalless draw with Feyenoord at De Kuip where they really should have opened a can of whoop ass on the dutch boys.

Mark Hughes' side frightened their Dutch opponents and maintain their unbeaten record in Group E.

Feyenoord were non-existant for large proceedings of the game, and inevitably they failed to find a way past the resolute Rovers defence as they earned the point to book their place in the last 32.

Blackburn were the brighter of the two sides and showed they were not afraid to take the game to Feyenoord.

The visitors went close to scoring after just eight minutes when Benni McCarthy teed up strike partner Shabani Nonda inside the box and the Congo international powered in a shot which Henk Timmer very luckily turned round the post. It could so easily have gone in.

The charitable Nonda wasted an even better opening on 21 minutes when David Bentley picked him out unmarked inside the box, but the big striker headed his effort just over the top.

Feyenoord's only noteworthy attack of the game was when Angelos Charisteas tricked his way past two Rovers defenders inside the penalty area, but Brad Friedel was quickly off his line to block the Greek striker's shot with his legs.

Feyenoord had strong claims for a penalty turned down on 35 minutes when Stein Husyegems clearly dived from hero Brett Emerton, but much to the relief of Emerton the home side's cheating appeals were waved away.

The Dutch side went close to scoring five minutes before the break when Theo Lucius sent Danny Buys clear down the left and he cut the ball back for Nicky Hofs who saw his goalbound shot blocked by Andre Ooijer. It clearly wasn't the Hoffmeister's night

Feyenoord picked up Charisteas from the dustbin and he captialised on a mistake by Zurab Khizanishvili to get through on goal, but under pressure from the excellent Michael Gray he could not get the power on his shot to trouble Friedel in the slightest.

Huysegems had a sight of goal on 47 minutes as dust went in his other eye and after his first shot was blocked by the hero Emerton he powered in a weak shot straight at Friedel as Feyenoord pushed forward in search of the opening goal.

Bentley had a half chance on 54 minutes when McCarthy sent over a cross from the left, but off balance Bentley drove his shot just off target.

Emerton tried his luck from range just past the hour mark with a fierce strike which Timmer barely managed to collect.

Feyenoord had claims for a penalty again turned down on 66 minutes when a cross from substitute Ali Boussaboun struck the arm of handy handy Ooijer inside the box.

Boussaboun created an opening for himself two minutes later on the scrabble board when his name earned him an impressive 14 points off the far post.

Robbie Savage went so very very close to scoring eight minutes from time when he made an interception in midfield allowing McCarthy to pick up the ball and the South African played in Savage who slid his left-footed just wide of the far post.

Feyenoord piled forward in the queue in search of a kebab, but Rovers held on for the draw to ensure their progression into the next round.

[RevidgeBlue]

Great great result, but another poor performance.

Friedel did what he had to do in goal and of the outfield players Ooijer and Gray played with great courage and spirit but no-one else can look back on their performance with any fondness.

Emerton - just about ok.

Zurab - absolute nightmare, never put a foot right and a case of "After you Maude" in the penalty area

Tugay - never got in the game

Savage - ditto until the last 15 mins.

Bentley - very poor game

MGP - the guy has a broken rib, withdraw him til he's fit.

Nonda - encouraging workrate but lack of quality when it mattered i.e. the free header he should have buried in the first half.

MCCarthy - pathetic -spent the whole game being caught offside.

Great Kudos due to Hughes and his team for our European accomplishment but there was little in tonight's performance to suggest an immediate upturn in League form.

[thenodrog]

Great great result, but another poor performance.

Friedel did what he had to do in goal and of the outfield players Ooijer and Gray played with great courage and spirit but no-one else can look back on their performance with any fondness.

Emerton - just about ok.

Zurab - absolute nightmare, never put a foot right and a case of "After you Maude" in the penalty area

Tugay - never got in the game

Savage - ditto until the last 15 mins.

Bentley - very poor game

MGP - the guy has a broken rib, withdraw him til he's fit.

Nonda - encouraging workrate but lack of quality when it mattered i.e. the free header he should have buried in the first half.

MCCarthy - pathetic -spent the whole game being caught offside.

Great Kudos due to Hughes and his team for our European accomplishment but there was little in tonight's performance to suggest an immediate upturn in League form.

Correct Simon! We were totally crap but we got away with it cos Feyenoord are totally crappier. Unfortunately we cannot rely on facing Europe's equivalents of Accy Stanley for much longer!

[AxesFirstTouch]

Ooijer was brilliant, him and Nelsen will be one of the best partnerships in the league. Its to fair to say Ooijers poor start for us didnt like being partnered with the hapless Zurab.

2 million for Ooijer was a bargain.

MGP = CRAP, Id rather Matteo play left wing then this passenger.

Edited November 24, 2006 by wakefieldrawks

[3recurring]

Agreed. Ooijer is certainly playing very well at the moment. I'd quite like him to stay on as captain until Nelsen comes back, although that's obviously pretty unlikely given that Neill will undoubtedly, although rather bafflingly (considering he's pretty much out the door), get the arm-band back as soon as he's fit again.

As for the £2m we paid for Ooijer, the LET ran a story a while back and mentioned it was actually £1.6m, which does seem like a much more agreeable price for a 32 year old, but is still a bit of a bargain given the way he's starting to play for us.

[AxesFirstTouch]

Neil should find himself on the bench when he comes back. Gray doesnt deserve at the moment to lose his place. Its also more beneficial for Rovers to keep playing Gray and let him keep up his form then replace him with a player who wont even be at Rovers in February.

[Paul]

The Guardian seem to feel we are doing the business. More positive than I would have been but good to see we are receiving deserved pariase for our Euro efforts to date, rather than just last night.

[Blackpool_Rover]

Oojer and Gray were excellent again.

MGP...what has gone wrong and why is he starting!!!!????

Im impressed with Jeffers i want to see him start.

[G Somerset Rover]

Delighted that we're through. Its been too long since we did ourselves justice in Europe and finally now we can hold our heads up high.

Plus points: Like many thought Ooijer and Micky Gray were quality and I'm pleased that Ooijer is making fools of the people who doubted him. I also thought that Tugay did the simple things well.

Negatives: Our attacking in general again. Nobody is doubting McCarthy's quality-but he has to be the least direct striker in the league. When he gets the ball he dwells on it for too long allowing defenders to get back when he should be running straight at goal. As somebody mentioned if we'd had pace up front near the end of the game yesterday we probably would have nicked a goal. Jeffers needs to start ahead of Nonda too.

Well done to the fans out there, you did us boys proud!

Edit: I agree with joey-their left back is going to be some player. Expect him to be at one of Europe's biggest clubs before too long.

Edited November 24, 2006 by Somerset Rover!

[arealbrfcfan]

I love how on the beeb website spurs are on the front page and we get hardly a mension. I know spurs is a bigger club but isnt it expected of them anyway? and why steal our glory?

[GiddyGoat]

If we continue to win our home games and draw our away games we'll win the cup

[3rdpillar]

I have already seen it covered, but I have to say the commentary from Eurosport left me thinking that we souldn't be there and they didn't want us there. . . . . .British Eurosport NOT!

Edited November 24, 2006 by 3rdpillar

[CAPT KAYOS]

My penneth ... well done for getting through but we are going to have to drastically improve.

What penalty(ies) ?? - yet again uproar made against ones that should have been against us which blatantly were not - compared to stonewall ones for us.

Its now NO NO NO Nonda - he offers nothing

McCarthy - start to pull your finger out - how many times does he want to be offside??

We have to stop giving the ball away for FFS and stop dwelling on it - there where many times last night where we just didn't concentrate and lost some good attacking opportunities - especially in the first 1/2 hour.

Jeffers deserves a start - did more in the little time he had than Nonda has done for the past 5 games.

Thanks goodness for Brad - still alot of of stand off in defence though

Zurab was downright awful.

MGP -imo did alright compared to recently and his 'broken' rib - if only he would stop being so lacksadaisical with his crosses and passing.

Except for Gray and Whoareya (he is beginning to impress me) the rest was much of a muchness with Tugay probably the only one with any credit - had alot of the ball but not much on for him to pass to.

Thought Feynenoord where quite impressive in patches until they got to the penalty box.

One thing is certain - the last two Euro games we have got 4 pts - when in all reality we probably should have had none.

Now the worrying part - Interview with Sparky last night he said he thought we where the better team and controlled most of the game especially the first 20 mins - and the interview with Savage - he said we went out to win and he also thought we controlled the game .... Doh!!

Well done to the fans who travelled - I'm sure you will have enjoyed it.

All I can say is thank goodness for the break.

[only2garners]

It looks from the posts here that I might be the first one to post who was at the match - 7.20 flight back from Amsterdam this morning so precious little sleep.

On the match itself it seemed a draw was the right result - both sides could have scored with more adventure and composure. I would disagree with many on the individual performances - Emerton had an excellent game and for me was one of the Rovers stars with Ooijer and Tugay (of course). On the other hand Bentley was dreadful, even taking into account he had a strong left back to play against and for me Gamst was better - not good but better than Bentley. The first half penalty claim by Feyenoord, which I see the BBC is giving some credence to, would have been laughable if given.

On crowd matters I trust we will hear more as folk get back. As suspected it was an unreserved seating area and, as everyone stood throughout, it was very difficult for anyone coming in later to get near a seat. We arrived just before kick-off (thanks to Dutch railways who stopped the train specially at the stadium station for us) and spent the first half stood in the aisle with about 500 others. I believe there were many who didn't get properly in until half time. Imagine this happening in England. Also, despite what I thought was a UEFA rule, beer was for sale in the stadium and you could also take it into the ground. This created more mayhem as there were plenty who couldn't last 45 minutes and had to go and get more during the match. Why anyone, who could presumably have spent all day drinking and could carry on after the match needed to miss 20 minutes of a match they had travelled so far to see just to get a pint of 2% beer was beyond me, let alone that it took forcing their way past several hundred Rovers fans both ways to do it.

We were locked in after the match for an hour, which seemed a bit extreme given that we had a protective walkway all the way back to the station and coaches, although I presume they had to clear the station of Feyenoord fans first. This meant that we didn't get back to Amsterdam until 1.00 a.m.

[thenodrog]

Must say that our players looked jaded and listless. It might have been a professional performance coming away with a draw but Feyenoord were really there for the taking and especially so in the first half hour. Too many players put in poor performances and it appears that injuries to key players and a small squad are taking their toll. In particular Bentley, Zurab, MGP and both strikers could have no complaints if they were dropped next game if we had anything like suitable replacements. The weekends rest * is more than welcome.

* btw? Why are we not playing anyway?

[OhmiBRFC]

Stewards were a joke, people were getting squashed all over. I went toilet and couldnt get up, missed alot of game. Our fans were excellent non-stop singing leave at 5 today cant wait get home

[thenodrog]

I went toilet and couldnt get up, missed alot of game. Our fans were excellent non-stop singing leave at 5 today cant wait get home

Are you a red indian?

You sound like Chiefy in the Beano!

[Uxbridge rover]

Are you a red indian?

You sound like Chiefy in the Beano!

LOL that made me chuckle

[Daremz]

As a Dutch Rover fan who was there: Full credit to the Rover-fans, they were magnificent and made me proud to be a Rover. I have a short LQ-movie which I'll upload and link. Especially the second half they just kept on singing, and ofcourse, between the Feyenoord-scum, I was singing along, gently !

The match: I had the feeling Rovers settled for a draw, Feyenoord weren't quality at all, without spilling too much effort Rovers kept them from their goal, the chances Feyenoord got all came out of nothing (strange situations, blocked shots). A good draw, shame Savage and Benni couldn't find the net in their big second half chances but hey, we're through! Ooijer, Gray and Tugay were the best players in my opinion.

Thanks to all Rover fans who were in the away-stand, you made me proud!

[Clog Blue]

* btw? Why are we not playing anyway?

Watford wouldnt agree to play us!

[Gav]

Just sat in my the hotel lobby and thought i'd write my experience of yesterday.

First of all the support out here both in the bars of Amsterdam and on the night of the game was nothing short of sensational. Something about these European trips brings out the best in you and it's an experience everyone should have. Everywhere you tunred in Amsterdam you'd see Rovers fans, the bars echoed to sound of No Nay Never etc etc and the grasshopper on Wednesday night was like the brown cow, fox and hounds, white bull etc all wound in to one. WONDERFUL.

We left Amsterdam about 4.45pm yesterday and headed for the designated port area where we'd been told we could drink before the game. We arrived in Rotterdam and were told we could not leave the station and thst s train would along soon to take us to the port. 20 Mins later we were on our way and got to the port to discover the police had just shut the bars for no reason at all and we were penned in to that area for the next 2hrs with only water to drink and no explanation at all. Having remonstrtated with the police we were still given no explanation for why this was and had to wait for the buses to the ground. This also caused more friction as they ran one bus to the ground for around 500 people, when that returned they put another hundred on and so on. I still can't believe it never actually kicked off there because of the police's decision to close the bars, if ít had been a different set of supporters it would have got nastly.

I'll never attend a meeting point organised the club again. I like many had been all over Europe watching Rovers and I never been treated like that, even with England it's rare these days. To say the police are used to dealing with supporters they were clueless, ignorant and aggresive in some cases. It really spoilt the night to be honest.

As for the ground itself it was like going back in time with a couple of lads ripping tickets off in a booth, it took ages to get in the ground then we were lucky as we had seats but I know Bob flemming paid 300 quid to come over for a day and never saw the first half due to cr@p stewarding. It was amaturish and just made the whole game an experience I won't forget in a hurry.

Anyway I'm ###### off again now so I'm going for a beer and something to eat.

Great result, Wonderful support, onwards and upwards.

Well done to all that travelled.

Now the worrying part - Interview with Sparky last night he said he thought we where the better team and controlled most of the game especially the first 20 mins - and the interview with Savage - he said we went out to win and he also thought we controlled the game .... Doh!!

A very sober Gav (Explanation why, above) agrees with both Hughes and Savagae, we did boss the game for long periods. They were poor and had a few chances but we bossed the game. I was impressed with No 24 for them. We never got past him once, maybe worth a look at Mr Hughes.

[only2garners]

"I'll never attend a meeting point organised the club again. I like many had been all over Europe watching Rovers and I never been treated like that, even with England it's rare these days. To say the police are used to dealing with supporters they were clueless, ignorant and aggresive in some cases. It really spoilt the night to be honest."

We decided not to go to Rotterdam beforehand as it didn't sound easy to get to and from and didn't seem to offer anything more than we already had in Amsterdam. We caught the 19.10 from Amsterdam and just made it to the ground in time after the train conductor got permission to stop the train at the stadium station - otherwise we would have been very late. there were maybe 200 fans on this train. It sounded from hearing from other fans, including Gav, who left earlier than us, that we made the right choice.

"As for the ground itself it was like going back in time with a couple of lads ripping tickets off in a booth, it took ages to get in the ground then we were lucky as we had seats but I know Bob flemming paid 300 quid to come over for a day and never saw the first half due to cr@p stewarding. It was amaturish and just made the whole game an experience I won't forget in a hurry."

God knows why they could not have given us numbered seats - there were numbers on the seats. If that had happened everyone would have been in front of a seat even if we all ended up stood up all the time. We would not have then had a central aisle overflowing with fans for the first half at least, and many who couldn't even get this far. It seemed from looking at the other end that it was the same for the Feyenoord fans as well so presumably it's normal behaviour, which is outrageous given what could have happened.

[somtam11]

Great to get through but I didn't think it was a great performance. Too many players below par particularly Bentley, Kish and MGP. Nonda couldn't have hit a barn door last night plus he lacks pace. McCarthy needs to understand the offside rule, too many good attacks fell down due to him being offside.

Really sorry not to have been there , looked fantastic support for Rovers, had tickets allocated but turned them down as I was scared there would be trouble from the Feyenoord nutters and I wasn't prepared to put myself, my wife and my children through that.

Hopefully there was no trouble but I would be interested to hear people's experiences and also how many coaches went from Ewood.

Hopefully we'll get a good draw in December so we can take another big following in Feb but hopefully to a club without any nutters !!

[only2garners]

Great to get through but I didn't think it was a great performance. Too many players below par particularly Bentley, Kish and MGP. Nonda couldn't have hit a barn door last night plus he lacks pace. McCarthy needs to understand the offside rule, too many good attacks fell down due to him being offside.

Really sorry not to have been there , looked fantastic support for Rovers, had tickets allocated but turned them down as I was scared there would be trouble from the Feyenoord nutters and I wasn't prepared to put myself, my wife and my children through that.

Hopefully there was no trouble but I would be interested to hear people's experiences and also how many coaches went from Ewood.

Hopefully we'll get a good draw in December so we can take another big following in Feb but hopefully to a club without any nutters !!

As far as I'm aware there was no trouble, certainly at the ground. Reading Gav's post above, there was some heavy handed policing in Rotterdam but I didn't see it. Being locked in for an hour was frustrating, especially as it meant we didn't get back to Amsterdam until 1.00 a.m. The arrangements inside the ground were shambolic and would have been very bad for any elderly, infirm or young fans

[AxesFirstTouch]

Although Im not Grays biggest fan, even I admit hes been great lately. I really hope Hughes does not bench him when Neill is fit though. We'll need Gray come January when Neill jumps ship, our poor form will be making Neill even more determined to leave as well.