The 2014–15 season was Feyenoord's 107th season of play, it marked its 59th season in the Eredivisie and its 93rd consecutive season in the top flight of Dutch football. It was first season with manager Fred Rutten. The club was busy during the summer transfer window, selling or releasing of 12 players and signing 13 new players. Feyenoord had a bad start of the season, dropping to 15th place in the league after losing three and drawing two of its first six league games. They played only the second round of the KNVB Cup; they were knocked out by Go Ahead Eagles. The club also lasted a single round in the Champions League; the third qualifying round consisted of two losses to Beşiktaş. They reached the Europa League group stage by beating Zorya Luhansk 4–3 at home after an away draw. The team improved after this early showing. A five-game winning streak catapulted them to third place in the Eredivisie by mid fall. They also reached the knockout phase of the Europa League by beating Standard Liège, HNK Rijeka and title holders Sevilla in the group phase. They went into the winter break placed third in the league.
The club started in mediocre form after the winter break, winning three out of six games, while remaining in third place. Their round of 32 match-up in the Europa League against Roma marked the end of their European campaign; they lost 2–3 on aggregate. This started off a strong showing in the Eredivisie in which they won five out of six games, solidifying their third position in the league. Their season turned sour after this; they only collected two points in the final five games of the season. This skid landed them in fourth place at the end of the season. They lost their play-off match-up with Heerenveen for the last remaining European ticket, which means they will only play domestically in the 2015–16 season.
Background Feyenoord is one of the Big Three football clubs in the Netherlands having played at the highest level of competition uninterrupted since 1921. The previous three seasons the club was coached by Ronald Koeman; he announced his intention to leave the club in February 2014. During these three seasons Feyenoord finished second, third and second in the league, they got ousted from the cup twice in the quarter-finals and once in the third round. Their European campaigns were short-lived with five losses and one draw during these three years. A month after Koeman's announcement, Fred Rutten was presented as the new manager.
The club started their 2013–14 season with three straight league losses and an immediate exit from European football. They got knocked out of the cup in the quarter-finals. The team managed to come back from their early 17th league position and climbed to fourth place by the halfway point. They stayed in this position for most of the second half of the season and went on a winning streak to finish the 2013–14 Eredivisie in second place. This position gave the club an entry berth in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League. Five Feyenoord players from this season were selected for the Dutch squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup – Feyenoord contributed the most players to the Dutch team. Nine out of all World Cup players were trained by Feyenoord; they were the club that contributed most worldwide to develop players for this event.
Review and events
Pre-season Feyenoord started the pre-season preparations with its first training session on 25 June 2014 in front of 5,000 fans. They beat amateur sides SV Honselersdijk, VOC, FC Horst and ASWH in pre-season friendlies. Graziano Pellè, the top goals scorer of the two previous seasons, transferred to Southampton, managed by Ronald Koeman who coached Feyenoord the previous three seasons, for eight million euros. The club announced they had acquired former international defender Khalid Boulahrouz on a free transfer several days later. On 15 July, the transfer of Daryl Janmaat to Newcastle United and Bruno Martins Indi to Porto was announced, both played as defensive backs the previous season and were bronze medalists in the Dutch squad at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The club subsequently played a friendly game away at Emmen that resulted in a 2–0 win. They were supposed to play Fortuna Sittard in Echt-Susteren on 19 July, that game got banned in that municipality and was played behind closed doors in Rotterdam, resulting in a Feyenoord win. The last pre-season friendly ended in a 1–1 draw at home against Spanish side Real Sociedad; Mitchell te Vrede scored the lone Feyenoord goal. Before the game, a moment of silence commenced to remember the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Stefan de Vrij, the best defender of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, was transferred to Lazio at the end of July, marking the fourth high-profile sale of a Feyenoord player this transfer window.
Summer Feyenoord's second place in the previous season qualified them for the third qualifying round of the 2014–15 Champions League. They were drawn against Beşiktaş, who finished third in the 2013–14 Süper Lig. Feyenoord lost the first leg of the two-legged tie 1–2 at home on 30 July; Te Vrede converted a stoppage time penalty kick for the single Feyenoord goal. The club obtained two new players the next day, although they cannot play yet in the return against Beşiktaş. Luke Wilkshire came from Dynamo Moscow without transfer fee and Bilal Başaçikoğlu was obtained from Heerenveen for three and a half million euros.
The club played their return against Beşiktaş on 6 August without their new players and lost 3–1 in Istanbul, after Manu equalized the game with 16 minutes left to play. This loss knocked them out of the Champions league and into the play-off round of the 2014–15 Europa League, in which they were drawn against Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk. Due to the War in Donbas fought in the clubs' hometown of Luhansk – the city is from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site – Feyenoord's away game was not played at Avanhard Stadium, Zorya Luhansk's home grounds. Feyenoord opened their league campaign on the road against ADO Den Haag, they won this game 1–0 after a stoppage time goal by Te Vrede. On 15 August, Feyenoord announced they loaned forward Colin Kazim-Richards from Bursaspor for one season; the player did not yet play that evening when Feyenoord faced Heerenveen at home. This game saw two goals in three minutes, one by each team, and ended as a 1–1 draw after Te Vrede's equalizer levelled the score in the second half. Feyenoord's away game against Zorya Luhansk was played in Kyiv on 21 August, both teams scored in the first half; Luhansk got the first goal and Te Vrede equalized ten minutes later. The second half remained scoreless, the game ended in a one-all draw. The following Sunday, Feyenoord last their first game, it ended as 1–2 at home against Utrecht despite a first half lead from a Te Vrede goal. The next day Feyenoord announced they acquired midfielder Jens Toornstra from Utrecht for four years; he did not play against Feyenoord on his last day at Utrecht. Feyenoord secured their first European group stage appearance since 2008 on 28 August in a seven-goal home game against Luhansk. Feyenoord went up 2–0 at half time after goals by Te Vrede and Schaken. A Luhansk own goal led them to a comfortable 3–0 lead before conceding three successive goals brought them on the verge of elimination. Manu scored two minutes into stoppage time to give Feyenoord the 4–3 game win and 5–4 aggregate score that qualified them for the group stage of the Europa League. The next day the groups stage draw was held, placing Feyenoord with the Spanish title holder Sevilla, Belgian side Standard Liège and Croatian HNK Rijeka. On 31 August, Feyenoord sold midfielder Ruud Vormer to Club Brugge. Feyenoord ended August on the 31st with a scoreless away draw at Twente.
The club bought midfielder Karim El Ahmadi back from Aston Villa on 1 September, El Ahmadi played four seasons for Feyenoord before transferring to Aston Villa in 2012. Feyenoord acquired goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer the same day from arch rival Ajax; Vermeer obtained four caps in the Netherlands national team prior to his arrival at Feyenoord. After an international break, Feyenoord played Willem II at home. Despite a late Kazim-Richards goal, Feyenoord lost 2–1, which led to a season-worst 14th position with five points from five games. Feyenoord opened their Europa League group stage with an away game against Sevilla on 18 September. The game resulted in a 2–0 loss with both goals coming from set pieces in the first half.
Fall Feyenoord played De Klassieker at home on 21 September. They lost the game 1–0 after an early goal and dropped to the 15th position in the league table with 5 points from 6 matches. The club was knocked out of the 2014–15 KNVB Cup in the second round by Go Ahead Eagles the following Wednesday. They played the Eagles again in Deventer three days later, this time for a league match. They avenged their early cup exit by winning 4–0 with two goals a half; one was an Eagles own goal, Toornstra, Kazim-Richards and Te Vrede scored one each to reach this score line.
They played their second Europa League group game on 2 October against Standard Liège. Feyenoord scored first with a header of Van Beek shortly after half time. Standard equalized halfway through the second half before Manu's deciding goal shortly before the end of the game gave Feyenoord a 2–1 win. They had a second straight 4–0 league win, this time at home against groningen, the following Sunday with goals by four different players. Feyenoord climbed to the top half of the table on 18 October when they beat Heracles Almelo 2–1 at home after two goals by Manu. They played Rijeka away in the Europa League on 23 October, a game they lost 3–1, with all goals coming after half time. This placed them last in the group, two points from the leaders, at the half-way mark of the group matches. Feyenoord climbed to third place in the league table on 26 October with their fourth straight league win. They beat Cambuur 1–0 on the road with a first half Toornstra goal.
Feyenoord beat KNVB Cup holders PEC Zwolle, who had the same number of points going into the game, 2–0 at home on 1 November after second-half goals by both Van Beek and Boëtius. The following Thursday, Feyenoord played Rijeka at home. They arrived at the final 2–0 score quickly after an eight-minute goal by El Ahmadi and a 20th-minute header by Immers. The win led the club to the second place in the group with two matches left to play. Feyenoord played away at Vitesse Arnhem on 9 November, a game that ended in a scoreless draw. They played FC Dordrecht at home on 22 November. The game remained scoreless until deep in the second half when Toornstra and Schaken both scored to claim a 2–0 victory. They played their fifth Europa League group match at home against title holder Sevilla on 27 November. No goals were scored in the first half; 10 minutes into the second half Toornstra scored to give Feyenoord the lead, El Ahmadi doubled the score line shortly before full-time. The 2–0 win put them in first place in the group and secured their position in the knockout phase of the tournament.