Valente’s goal is all Feyenoord get at Het Kasteel, and Van Bronckhorst starts with a win

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has won his first league match back at Feyenoord, and he will know better than anyone that it should have been more comfortable than 1-0. Feyenoord beat Sparta Rotterdam at Het Kasteel on Sunday afternoon to open the Eredivisie season, and Luciano Valente’s goal in the 35th minute was the only thing they had to show for an afternoon spent camped in the Sparta half.

One goal from a long afternoon of pressure

Valente struck ten minutes before the break and that was the game. Dutch match reports described a Feyenoord side that dominated without punishing Sparta, arriving in front of goal repeatedly through the first half without the finishing to match. The second half brought no more goals, and a derby that Sparta could have lost by four instead stayed alive until the final whistle.

Sparta will not care much how it looked. They finished the afternoon with nothing, but they also kept the score at a level where one moment could have changed it, which is more than most sides manage against a Feyenoord team in this mood.

Van Bronckhorst’s second spell starts where his first one did

Van Bronckhorst took the job in June on a two-year deal running to June 2028, replacing Robin van Persie. Van Persie was dismissed at the end of last season despite finishing second, which tells you something about where Feyenoord think they should be. This is Van Bronckhorst’s second spell in charge. The first ran from 2015 to 2019 and brought an Eredivisie title, two KNVB Cups and two Dutch Super Cups.

He has had a clean run-up to the season, with five wins from five pre-season matches, and his first competitive result keeps that going. Whether the finishing worries him more than the clean sheet pleases him is the question the next few weeks will answer.

The gap Feyenoord are trying to close

Feyenoord finished second last season on 65 points from 19 wins, eight draws and seven defeats. PSV won it with 84, a 27th title, and 19 points is not the sort of margin you erase with a good pre-season. Van Persie lost his job over roughly that number.

Which is why the opening weekend already looks useful. PSV drew 2-2 at home with Fortuna Sittard on Saturday, conceding late, so Feyenoord end the first round of matches two points ahead of the champions. It counts for nothing in August. It is still a better start than the one they had last year, and against a Sparta side that beat them 4-3 at De Kuip in January, a scrappy 1-0 away from home is a result Van Bronckhorst will take without complaint.

The rest of the opening round follows later on Sunday, with Ajax away at PEC Zwolle kicking off at 6pm IST.

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