The Nigerian international, Maduka Okoye produced a brilliant save late on to preserve Sparta Rotterdam’s lead in an eventual win against FC Groningen.
Sparta Rotterdam’s chances of avoiding relegation were boosted significantly on Saturday with a hard-fought 2-1 win over FC Groningen.
Sparta went into the break with a 1-0 lead via Arno Verschueren. Lennart Thy doubled the away side’s lead in the 57th minute from a goalkeeper mistake.
With just thirteen minutes left to play, Bjorn Meijer headed home a cross from the right side to put Groningen back in the game. Groningen appeared to demolish Sparta’s defense and score the equalizer in the 80th minute but Maduka Okoye came off his line to produce a stunning 1v1 save to deny Jorgen Strand Larsen.
With the result, Sparta climbs to 16th place on the Eredivisie table, three points away from safety with two games left to play. They will play bottom placed PEC Zwolle in their next match on Wednesday.
The club finishing third from the bottom (16th place) of the Eredivisie goes to separate promotion/relegation play-offs with six high-placed clubs from the Dutch second division.
