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The second semi-final of the KNVB Cup, also known as the Dutch Cup, was hosted at the De Kuip Stadium in which Ajax defeated the home team Feyenoord 2-1 on April 5, to reach the final. They will next face PSV Eindhoven in the final. More than the result, this football match was marred with a lot of controversy from the very beginning.
Firstly, the game in Rotterdam started five minutes late because of the fireworks lit up by the Feyenoord fans. Just 21 seconds after kick-off, the match was stopped by the referee to help clear the massive smoke cloud that had descended upon the De Kuip Stadium. The players from both Feyenoord and Ajax were taken off the football pitch to ensure that their health and safety stays intact.
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Once the semi-final did get underway, it was a feisty affair as players from both sides wanted to make that impact and help their team reach the final of KNVB Cup. Dusan Tadic got the breakthrough for Ajax in the 14th minute before Santiago Gimenez levelled the score in the first half added time for the hosts Feyenoord.
The second half saw Davy Klaassen put Ajax ahead by 2-1 in the 51st minute. While he was celebrating the goal, a foreign object thrown from the crowd struck his head and he was busted open. The referee stopped the match immediately and the play was halted for 28 minutes as the officials tried to find the guilty party in the stands. In the meantime, the Feyenoord assistant John de Wolf grabbed a mic and told fans to use their brains in relation to the incident.
Shortly after resumption, Davy Klaassen, the eventual match winner for Ajax, was substituted as he gestured to the bench about feeling dizziness on the pitch. “I had a throbbing feeling around the wound and I also had trouble focusing, so I could have stayed on the pitch but that was not going to help me nor the team," h e said.
