FC Groningen 1 - 3 NEC Nijmegen

Groningen 1-3 Nijmegen: NEC nearing UEFA spot

Updated: May 11, 2008, 8:56 PM UK

GRONINGEN, May 11 (Eredivisie) - NEC Nijmegen moved a step closer to a place in next season's UEFA Cup by overcoming FC Groningen on Sunday.

Brett Holman and Krisztian Vadocz bagged first-half goals for the visitors to add to Jeremain Lens' goal in Thursday's first leg and put them firmly in the ascendancy 3-0 on aggregate.

Marcus Berg pulled one back for the hosts on the hour mark but Lorenzo Davids soon restored NEC's cushion.

Mario Been's team will next play the loser of the Heerenveen-NAC Breda encounter with the final UEFA Cup place at stake.

NEC took only five minutes to open the scoring on Sunday, Lens' cross landing at the feet of Holman who lashed the ball high into the net from six yards.

Chances were few and far between for the next 40 minutes with both sides playing a cagey game.

The Nijmegen outfit doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time when Vadocz latched onto Muslu Nalbantoglu's cross and struck a right-footed shot which found the bottom-right corner via a deflection off a Groningen defender.

Been seemed happy for his side to defend what they had at the interval and replaced striker Holman with defender Dominique Kivuvu.

Groningen pulled one back on the hour when Berg headed Mark-Jan Fledderus' cross into the top-right corner.

But, 12 minutes later, Davids finished off an NEC counter-attack by slotting the ball under goalkeeper Brian van Loo to put the tie beyond the hosts.