Dutch Eredivisie

Eredivisie Round 17 Results: PSV, Ajax & Feyenoord record victories as table toppers AZ lose

The Alkmaar side were beaten by NAC on Sunday, while all their title rivals except Twente bagged the full three points

De Graafschap 1-3 RKC

The hosts started the match with attacking intentions and were rewarded with the opener after 16 minutes of play. RKC goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet failed to hold on to Nenad Sreckovic's shot and Michael de Leeuw tapped home the rebound from close range.

RKC weren't impressed too much though and equalised in the closing stages of the first half when Frank van Mosselveld headed home a free kick.

The away side even grabbed the lead after the interval when Ard van Peppen found the net after being set up by Mitchell Schet, before Jochem Jansen beat his own goalkeeper in the 87th minute to make it three for the away side.

Heracles 0-1 Vitesse

Heracles dominated play on Saturday evening and created a number of chances to open the scoring. Nevertheless, they were unable to beat Vitesse shot stopper Piet Velthuizen, and were made to pay for it after the break.

Jan-Arie van der Heijden found Guram Kashia with a pinpoint corner kick and the Georgian defender beat his opponent to the ball before heading the winner past the helpless Heracles goalkeeper.

Roda 7-0 Excelsior

Roda were determined to pick up the full three points after last week's loss against VVV and got the early opener they were after when Jagos Vukovic added his name to the score sheet in the fifth minute after good work from Mads Junker.

Davy De Beule made things even worse for Excelsior at the half-hour mark, before Ruud Vormer made it three in the closing stages of the opening 45 minutes.

Excelsior then managed to keep the Roda attack quiet for quite a while, but Arnaud Sutchuin poured even more salt in the Rotterdam side's wounds in the 78th minute.

Mitchell Donald netted Roda's fifth of the evening shortly after, before again Sutchuin and finally Mikolaj Lebedynski made it seven for the Limburgers.

NEC 2-0 VVV

NEC were the better side of the two early on and deservedly opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Attacking midfielder John Goossens stepped up to take a free kick and surprised the VVV glovesman with a superb long range strike.

The hosts were then reduced to 10 man when Bram Nuytinck received his marching orders shortly after the break after a professional foul.

Nevertheless, NEC continued to dominate and again Goossens put the match to bed in the 78th minute with a powerful free kick.

Groningen 1-0 Utrecht

Groningen created numerous chances to open the scoring before the break, but Petter Andersson, Dusan Tadic and David Texeira all failed to find the net in the opening 45 minutes.

They kept on dominating though and were eventually rewarded for their positive attitude when Texeira broke the deadlock at the hour mark to with a calm finish to help Groningen to the full three points.

Ajax 4-0 ADO Den Haag

ADO Den Haag were dealt a huge blow when Ramon Leeuwin was shown a red card after only 10 minutes of play following a reckless challenge on Christian Eriksen.

Eriksen gave Ajax the lead shortly after when he found the net with a superb shot after being set up by Nicolas Lodeiro.

Ajax continued to dominate after the interval and Theo Janssen doubled the Amsterdam side's lead with a low shot in the far corner.

Eriksen then set up Dmitri Bulykin to make it 3-0, before the towering attacking provided the assist for Ajax's fourth via Miralem Sulejmani in the 85th minute.

Feyenoord 3-2 Twente

Feyenoord started the match with attacking intentions and went 1-0 up after only seven minutes. Otman Bakkal found John Guidetti with a low cross from the right and the Manchester City loanee tapped home from inside the area.

The young Swede caused the Twente defence all kinds of trouble and Guidetti got his second goal of the afternoon in the 43rd minute after a superb counterattack, before once more Guidetti made it three hardly one minute later.

Twente then fought back after the break and Nacer Chadli pegged one back after the Feyenoord backline failed to clear a corner kick. 

Luuk de Jong even made it 3-2 after a good individual action, but Twente were unable to net a third and left De Kuip empty handed.

NAC 2-1 AZ

AZ started the match the better side and came close to opening the scoring via Rasmus Elm, only to see the Swede's powerful shot come back off the upright.

Sloppy defending from Etienne Reijnen then allowed Anthony Lurling to break the deadlock and the veteran didn't fail from close range. Nevertheless, Brett Holman equalised before the half-time whistle to help AZ back in the game.

The table toppers got a number of chances to grab the lead in the second half, but NAC goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar proved to be too much of an obstacle, and Milano Koenders eventually even helped the home side to the full three points with a late strike after yet again sloppy defending from AZ.

Heerenveen 1-5 PSV

Heerenveen were somewhat surprisingly unable to trouble PSV as the guests needed only 18 minutes to break the deadlock. Zakaria Labyad sent in a superb cross from the right and Ola Toivonen headed home from five yards out.

A similar attack two minutes later resulted in a 2-0 lead as Stanislav Manolev found Tim Matavz with an excellent cross and the Slovenia international found the net with a superb header in the far corner.

Toivonen made it three in the 24th minute with a calm finish after a good combination with Matavz. 

Georginio Wijnaldum then made it four with a good header after a cross from Dries Mertens, before Marcelo headed home a corner kick to pour even more misery on Heerenveen.

The Friezen pegged one back via substitute Rajiv van La Parra late in the second half, but it was nothing more than a consolation goal.

Source: goal.com