PREVIEW: Ghaly’s interview doesn’t seem to have had any consequences in the short term, although it might have its effect on the long term, but that is to be seen.

Because of Ono’s injury, Ruud Gullit is short of midfielders and thereby has to let Ghaly play (even if he disagrees with the interview), and instead of Ono, Thomas Buffel will also play tomorrow. The Belgian midfielder will leave Feyenoord during the upcoming transfer period, and it is likely that he will return to his home-country Belgium and play for Anderlecht or Club Brugge. There will be no more changes in Feyenoord’s eleven in comparison with last week when they played to a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam.

Knowing that Ajax crushed number 18 De Graafschap with a 5-0 score, after being 0-0 at the break, and as AZ has won against RKC Waalwijk, it is a case for Feyenoord where they must win their match to keep on the path of PSV and AZ, and to avoid Ajax getting closer.

At first glance it will be an easy match at home against the constantly mid-table/lower-half squad of FC Groningen, but those thoughts are misleading. Feyenoord have never crushed their opponents of tomorrow, and most of the time have won with a small margin. Earlier this year Feyenoord-FC Groningen was disastrous for the Rotterdam crowd, as the squad that had much less quality took the win to the north of Holland when they won with a 1 goal margin. But you can say it is a whole different world now, as the last meeting was one of Bert van Marwijk’s last appearances as Feyenoord trainer and there was nothing left to win in the league. Now Feyenoord is growing each week, even though last week lowered the morale a bit as a win was expected in Amsterdam, but people are confident in Ruud Gullit’s approach to the squad and have faith in Feyenoord winning a championship again.