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End of Season Update
Two huge games awaited us, the cup final and the last day of the season against our bitter rivals Vitesse. Could we make history?
Results
Dutch Cup Final / 24/5/16 / De Graafschap v Vitesse
The huge final kicked off, and we were the better team out of the gate. And our good start was rewarded when Lucas Boye put us 1-0 up after just 14 minutes, a great start! We continued to press, but looked solid defensively. Just before half time we grabbed another! A brilliant time to score, we went in at half time 2-0 up. I assured the boys that the game wasn't won yet, and we went out looking slightly edgy but disciplined. Leandro Banegas scored for Vitesse with around 15 minutes left, 2-1, an edgy scoreline. To make matters worse, Jason Denayer got sent off just minutes from full time. Everyone was defending, and we hung on to win the 1st Dutch Cup in De Graafschap history!
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Our season was not over yet though, we had to get our heads down as we had the title to fight for in a weeks time!
1/5/16 / Vitesse v De Graafschap
Ajax were at home to AZ, PSV were away at Zwolle and we were away at Vitesse, all 3 teams had tough games. Just 9 minutes in Saleh Gomma scored an absolute beauty from the edge of the box, 1-0! However, the atmosphere was dampened as news filtered through that Ajax were winning through a Zellabos header. The players kept there heads down, and Vincent Vermeij scored just before half time, 2-0 just like the Cup Final! However, Ajax had scored again, they were 2-0 up, surely our chances of the title were over.
The second half began, but Vitesse soon pulled one back and it looked like Cup Final v2 was happening. Suddenly a huge roar from the stands at the away end, AZ had done the impossible and come back to 2-2! If things were staying the same the title was ours! The players kept plugging away, and we scored two more to put the game out of sight. 4-1 up! There was a delay in the Ajax game so as the final whistle blew, everyone turned there heads to the Ajax game.
Ajax were all over them 7 minutes into added time, it looked impossible for them not to score. But suddenly AZ got the ball back and it was 2 players versus the keeper! GOAL! 3-2 to AZ! It was in that moment we knew, we had done it.
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The PSV game finished 3-4 in a thriller, but it ended up being irrelevant.
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In an absolutely unreal season, we win both the Eredivisie and the Dutch Cup for the first time in the clubs history. We won the league by 2 points in the end, which also means we automatically qualify for the UCL group stages next season. If we had drawn our last game, we would've been in the Europa League.
What a season.
