Quite often, the best goals don’t come from the bigger matches. Michael de Leeuw, a player who until not too long go was still an amateur, scored one of the best goals this season, being quite creative and acrobatic with his finish, producing a spinning heel volley in order to score during the 5-2 win by Groningen over NEC.

The 27-year old de Leeuw has been with Groningen since the beginning of last season. He has enjoyed quite a meteoric rise over the last few years, moving up from amateur clubs like DWC and RKTVV to the Dutch second division where he starred for Veendam, moving on to the Eredivise, doing quite well for De Graafschap before moving on to Groningen, scoring 11 goals last season.

He’s already up to six this season, scoring the first in the 5-2 win and then adding his second (and later a third), undoubtedly the best goal of his career, in the 49th minute to open the half. Other scorers in the match: Filip Kostic and an own goal by Rens van Eijden. Christoph Hemlein and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored for NEC.

With the win, Groningen remain in sixth place, but move a bit closer to the top group of Heerenveen, Feyenoord, Twente, Vitesse and Ajax, with the last two leading the league after Ajax’ dramatic win over Roda thanks to Jairo Riedewald, a 17-year old, scoring two goals in the final two minutes.