Former Celtic striker Pierre van Hooijdonk struck two first-half goals as Feyenoord beat ten-man Borussia Dortmund 3-2 to win the UEFA Cup for the second time after an entertaining final at their own De Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam this evening. The Dutch team had to survive a superb second-half comeback from Dortmund who were reduced to ten men in the 31st minute when defender Juergen Kohler was sent-off in the last game of his career.
The game was played amid tight security after this week's murder of the city's anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn but there was no crowd trouble in the De Kuip stadium, Feyenoord's home ground. Van Hooijdonk struck his first goal from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute after Kohler was shown the red card for bringing down Jon Dahl Tomasson in the penalty area.
Seven minutes later the forward struck a spectacular free kick from around 30 metres into the left-hand corner to put the Dutch team, cup winners in 1974, 2-0 ahead at halftime. Just two minutes into the second-half Marcio Amoroso pulled a goal back for the German champions with a penalty. Three minutes later Tomasson broke away to fire in a 20-metre shot to put Feyenood 3-1 up.
But the Dutch team were under pressure for the rest of the match after Dortmund's Czech forward Jan Koller hit a brilliant right-footed shot into the top left-hand corner from outside of the area in the 58th minute. Dortmund, the European Cup winners in 1997, put on a superb display despite playing with 10 men for most of the match.
The victory marked the first European triumph for a Dutch club for seven seasons after Ajax Amsterdam won the European Cup in 1995. Mounted police patrolled the streets around the stadium amid fears of violence between rival gangs of hooligans in the city where Fortuyn had lived.
Filed by Shane Murray
