page_title: NEC Nijmegen
section_title: 2008
hierarchical_section_title: NEC Nijmegen / History / 2008
caption_attribution_description: McDos Goffertstadium, Nijmegen
context_page_description: NEC Nijmegen, commonly NEC, is a Dutch football club from the city of Nijmegen that plays in the Eerste Divisie.
  The oldest remnant of the club, "Eendracht", stems back to 15 November 1900. In 1910, Eendracht merged with Nijmegen to form the Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie. The team's home ground is the 12,500-seat Stadion de Goffert.
  The club was runner-up in the KNVB Cup competition of 1973, 1983, 1994 and 2000. It played in UEFA Cup tournaments of 1983, 2003, and 2008.
context_section_description: In 2008, NEC qualified for the third time in its history for European competition. With this, Mario Been followed in the footsteps of former-coach Johan Neeskens. After a disappointing first half of the year, the club was 17th place. But after the winter break, there was a remarkable turnaround. From January 2008, NEC played terrific football and scored many goals. Victory after victory resulted in an excellent eighth place in the Eredivisie. This position was rewarded by participation in the UEFA Cup play-offs. NEC was also superior in the play-offs beating Roda JC Kerkrade, FC Groningen, and NAC Breda. With 31 undefeated matches in a row and with a 6–0 home victory at NAC Breda the highlight, NEC reached European football again. The return match at Breda was a formality, but the team was also victorious. What followed was a great homage to many thousands of fans on the Goffertwei.
  The year became even more successful following early rounds of the UEFA Cup. In the first round, the club defeated Dinamo Bucureşti in two heart-stopping matches. After a 1–0 winning home game, NEC drew 0–0 in Romania to reach the group-stage. It was then drawn against larger European clubs Tottenham Hotspur, Udinese, Spartak Moscow, and Dinamo Zagreb. All the experts gave the club little chance of reaching the next round, but NEC defied the odds. After a stunning match against Zagreb, with a goal from Dinamo in the last minute, there stood a disappointing 3–2 on the scoreboard. NEC were perhaps the better team but gained no points. After this, English team Tottenham came to the McDOS Goffertstadion and won 0–1. Nijmegen was on the bottom of the pool and was almost out of the tournament. But there was hope in the Netherlands after a 1–2 victory against Spartak Moscow in Russia with a very important goal from Lasse Schöne. NEC played its last match in Nijmegen against Udinese. To go to the next round, NEC and Tottenham had to win (against Spartak Moscow). Tottenham were behind and after 45 minutes, while there was a disappointing 0–0 on the scoreboard in Nijmegen. But in the 74th minute, there was a sensational moment: Tottenham scored twice to eventually draw 2–2 against Spartak and Collins John almost simultaneously scored to make the score 1–0 for NEC. With a second goal from Jhon van Beukering (his third European goal of the season), NEC reached the next round.
  The last 32 draw of the UEFA Cup saw NEC fixtured to play against big German club Hamburger SV. The fairy tale ended for the club when the Germans won 0–3 in the Goffertstadion and 1–0 in Hamburg. However, the progression into the last 32 capped off the most successful year in the club's history. NEC was lauded for their terrific football and their sociability. Supporters were complimented in Europe, especially by Franz Beckenbauer, who said he had never witnessed such great ambiance from away-supporters and that Premier League clubs had never seen so many away-fans at a club-match (4,500).
caption: McDos Stadium de Goffert in 2008, 12,500 spectators.
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