FC Groningen played a 1-1 draw against Jong Sparta on Saturday evening at sportpark Corpus den Hoorn. The stakes of this two-match series are a spot in the second division of amateur football. There are two spots available for the young teams of professional clubs. Sparta finished below Jong Almere City and must play for survival. FC Groningen became champions among the youth teams. Both teams were better in the first half. In the period when FC Groningen was on top, Joop Oosterhof opened the score for FC Groningen: 1-0. Oosterhof got another good chance afterwards. After the break, Groningen got a quick good chance, but Sparta became more dangerous with two shots from the second line. Sparta escaped a red card when a broken player from FC Groningen was tackled from behind. Levi Roeland missed a good chance for FC Groningen when he was alone against the Rotterdam goalkeeper Rik Suur. A minute later, in the 70th minute, Sparta equalized through substitute Luc Nieuwenhuis: 1-1. FC Groningen then pushed forward and scored again, but that goal was disallowed for offside, so it remained 1-1.