The Argentinian born Mexican international is already in double figures in the Eredivisie this season, scoring 13 goals in only 9 games, and went on to score twice in Feyenoord’s 3-1 win against Lazio at De Kuip on Wednesday evening. After being sent off in the 120th minute of Feyenoord’s 4-1 loss to Roma in last seasons Europa League quarter-final Santiago Giménez received a two game suspension, therefore the game against Lazio was his first experience of Champions League football.
Feyenoord started well, with Giménez scoring after 26 minutes, but only to see the goal ruled out after a VAR review for offside. However, Giménez scored again only minutes later, after a precision pass from Wieffer, Giménez took the ball on the half turn at the edge of the box and slotted the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, leaving De Kuip to erupt into noise. Feyenoord finished the half strongly too, with midfielder Ramiz Zerrouki finishing off a well worked team goal by accurately finessing the ball into the top left-hand corner.
Both teams made changes at the break with Marcos López replacing Bart Nieuwkoop for Arne Slot’s team, while Maurizio Sarri made two changes, bring off Nicolò Rovella and Elseid Hysaj to be replaced by Matteo Guendouzi and Manuel Lazzari. However these substitutions did not have the desired impact that Sarri was looking for as Feyenoord continued to mount pressure on the visitors, Paixao missed a big change within the first five minutes of the second half. However, the Rotterdammers finally got their reward for their continued pressure as a Giménez was able to tap-in a rebound from Timber’s effort after an attack down Lazio’s right-hand side.
The visitors were able to claw one goal back with ten minutes to spare, however to no avail as the game ended 3-1 after seven minutes of injury time. This win puts Feyenoord top of their group on six points after three games played, with Atlético Madrid in second place on five points after they only managed a 2-2 draw against Celtic during the other game in the group. Feyenoord and Giménez will hope to continue this rich vein of form as they take on fourth placed FC Twente in the Eredivisie on Sunday, before making the return trip to Lazio for their fourth game of the Champions League group in two weeks time.
