The Venlo outfit recorded a 2-2 stalemate against Helmond Sport in the return leg of the promotion/relegation play-offs but claimed a 4-3 aggregate win to prolong their stay in the Dutch top tier.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ton-c35408 Lokhoff, was unable to hide his happiness following his side’s 4-3 aggregate win over Helmond Sport. The win guaranteed the Venlo's Eredivisie status for the upcoming season.
After claiming a well deserved 2-1 win over Helmond in the first-leg on May 17, the Good Old needed at least a draw in the return leg to prolong their stay in the highest echelons of Dutch football. They achieved their objective
with a 2-2 draw at De Koel Stadion on Sunday, May 20.
Venlose Trots commenced proceedings brightly in the return leg, and broke the deadlock in the fifth minute. Yanny Wildschut picked out http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danny-Holla-c10209 on the edge of the box and the 24-year-old made no mistake in hitting the back of
the net.
The visitors responded aggressively and restored parity three minutes later, as Jop van der Linden's delivery from the free-kick was headed home by Sebastian Stachnik.
In the 14th minute, Helmond stunned the home side by levelling the score-line 3-3 on aggregate when a Van der Linden corner was perfectly headed into the back of the net by Zarko Grabovac.
After intense opening 15 minutes, the match settled down a bit, though, the hosts tried to score the equaliser in the remaining action of the first-half.
After the half-time break, the visiting side resumed proceedings brightly and could have extended their lead. However, Grabovac failed to beat VVV goalkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dennis-Gentenaar-c10917, and the chance went begging.
In the 68th minute, Philipp Haastrup brought down Wildschut in the penalty area and Holla coolly converted the resulting spot-kick to level the score-line.
Helmond needed to win the match in order to earn promotion, but they failed to add any more goals in the remaining action as the match ended in a 2-2 stalemate, with VVV retaining their Eredivisie status.
Lokhoff was extremely delighted with his side’s efforts and revealed that his players deserve to play in the Dutch top flight.
“Everyone contributed and played his role perfectly. Therefore, we have earned Eredivisie status, which was very important for the club as well. We had only one ambition in our mind, to stay in Eredivisie. Play-offs were not easy,
but at the end, we were successful in our mission”, Lokhoff was quoted as saying to the media.
Tags: