Holland’s top division rarely fails to deliver on the goals front, and with big games for teams at both the top and bottom of the table it promised to be another thrilling and goal-packed weekend in the Eredivisie.
PSV regained top spot on Saturday by inflicting a fourth straight defeat on Excelsior, and took their goal tally to an impressive 43 for the season so far. Dan Bovenberg gave the new league-leaders an early scare by putting the away side 1-0 up within 5 minutes, but the struggling Excelsior’s lead was short lived as goals from Jeremain Lens and ex-Villa man Wilfred Bouma ensured that Eindhoven went in ahead at the break.
Shortly after the restart Swedish international Toivonen extended the lead with his 9th of the season, but Fernandez kept his side in the game by making it 3-2 with twenty minutes left on the clock. However, Toivonen then turned provider for team-mate Marcelo, who hammered the ball into the top corner to make it 4-2 and to end a spirited display by Excelsior, which saw the side slip into the relegation places due to other results.
Twente now needed an away win against NAC Breda to take back top spot, which is easier said than done with NAC only losing one game at the Rat Verlegh Stadion this term. The pressure is on new Twente manager Michel Preud’homme to impress after predecessor and current Wolfsburg manager Steve McClaren guided the Enschede based club to their first ever Eredivisie title in 2009-10.
So far he has not failed, making the club look like genuine contenders to retain their crown. And with only 21 minutes gone in Breda it looked like the defending champions’ great start to the season was set to continue, when striker Bryan Ruiz scored from close-range to put his side ahead.
Twente continued to press and try and extend their lead, but solid defending and a great performance from goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar kept the home side within touching distance of their visitors, until the 81st minute when NAC’s hard work paid off and Leonardo’s perfectly weighted ball was converted by Boussaboun to level things up. Then in the dying embers of the game, Matthew Amoah pounced on a poor back-pass from Leugers and completed the late turn-around. NAC’s 2-1 win keeps them in touching distance of the Europa League play-offs.
The biggest game of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon when 3rd placed Ajax travelled to AZ Alkmaar. Last season’s runners up had the chance to close the gap on the side that stopped them from winning their 30th Eredivisie title last year, but that would prove to be easier said than done as three points for AZ would also keep them in touch with the top two.
AZ’s 1st half performance showed exactly why they deserve to be up there competing for those prestigious Champion’s League places, with the home side controlling most of the early stages. World Cup villain Luis Suarez was the only Ajax player posing any sort of a threat to Sergio Romero’s goal before the break, and although both sides went in goalless at half time, Ajax manager Martin Jol would have had more to think about than his Alkmaar counterpart.
Much of the same followed when the teams returned to the pitch, until the 74th minute when Pontus Wernbloom headed home Klavan’s cross to break the deadlock for Alkmaar. And it didn’t take long for AZ to wrap up the three points when substitute Sigthorsson headed home to double their lead just three minutes later, moving Verbeek’s side into 5th position in the table, just 2 points behind Ajax.
In the rest of the weekend’s action, struggling Heracles gave their home fans something to cheer about with a resounding 3-0 win over 4th placed Groningen to put some daylight between them and the relegation zone. Goals from Armenteros, Ramos da Silva, and Looms condemned the title hopefuls to defeat and moved Heracles up to 12th in the table.
Venlo’s fans had less to cheer about as they lost 5-1 to Vitesse in front of their own fans. A win was crucial for both sides as they sat side-by-side in the relegation play-off places before kick-off. At half time the away side were 2-0 up through goals from Pluim and Jenner, but a point still seemed salvageable for the hosts, even more so after Boymans’ well-placed penalty halved the deficit just thirteen minutes from time.
However a late collapse from Venlo saw substitute Marcus Pedersen score two goals in as many minutes to give Vitesse a 4-1 lead in De Koel, with Aisatti scoring in the 89th minute to cap off a crushing victory for the visitors.
Feyenoord have only managed one win since their crushing 10-0 defeat to PSV last month, and hoped to change that in front of a 39,000-strong crowd in Rotterdam when they came up against Heerenveen. An early Castaignos goal put them ahead, but goals from Vayrynen and Viktor Elm made it 2-1 to Heerenveen. A deflected shot from Cabral found its way into the net late on to earn Feyenoord a point.
NEC also grabbed a very late point. Their defender Zomer headed an equaliser during injury time to level the score at 1-1 with mid-table rivals ADO Den Haag, who had taken the lead when another Nijmegen defender Nathaniel Will put through his own net late on in the first half.