Willem II 1-2 Volendam
Vitesse 1-0 Heerenveen
Ajax 2-2 Heracles
Twente 4-1 NAC
AZ 1-0 Roda
Feyenoord 1-0 Sparta
Utrecht 3-0 De Graafschap
Groningen 2-0 NEC
PSV 6-0 Den Haag
The big movers in the midweek round of games were Twente who took advantage of Ajax's slip-up to go second. Where Twente were profligate in drawing 0-0 with Utrecht last weekend, Marko Arnautovic in particular turning down any number of chances, this time they were clinical. Arnautovic got the first and Peter Wiesgerhof made it two by the break before Eljero Elia added a third on the hour. Fouad Idabdellhay got one back for the visitors before Romano Denneboom made it four in stoppage time. Kenneth Perez pulled all the strings for Twente as they dominated from start to finish.
That puts them second thanks to Ajax's continued poor run. It could have been worse than a draw as Heracles lead 2-0 going into half-time. After weathering an early Ajax storm, with keeper Martin Pieckenhagen in inspired form, Heracles hit them on the counter with a Ricky van den Bergh goal on 12 minutes and Vojtěch Schulmeister made it two on the half hour and Heracles were on their way to a first away win. Until the seventieth minute, that is, when Miralem Sulejmani latched onto Robert Schildder's cross to pull one back. Pieckenhagen turned from hero to villian just a couple of minutes later, fouling Siem de Jong in the box and Luis Suarez beat him from the spot. Sulejmani turned the ball home in the dying seconds but was offside. It would have been cruel on Heracles.
Down at the bottom, Volendam's vastly improved form is causing headaches for the rest of them down there. Their first away win came in Tilburg and from an early goal down. Arjan Swinkels had slotted home an early penalty after Tim Bakens pulled down Sergio Zijler, but the better chances were going Volendam's way. It took them until after the break to hit back through Rowin van Zaanen heading home at the back post and it was he who supplied the cross for Henny Schilder's 85th minute winner after his side had pounded the Tilburg goal for the last half hour.
This brought Volendam a point behind De Graafschap at the bottom who were undone by Cedric van der Gun's hat-trick at Utrecht. His first came on the half hour and a second followed in first half stoppage time and he completed his hat-trick seven minutes from time to hammer home Utrecht's dominance. The Rotterdam derby ended with a 1-0 win for Feyenoord, easing them away from trouble, but leaving Sparta firmly in the smelly stuff. Diego Biseswar got the only goal 12 minutes into the contest. Erik Falkenburg's 25-yard free-kick almost got Sparta back on terms, but Feyenoord hung on for Leon Vlemmings first win in charge despite late pressure.
Heerenveen's good run came to an end in Arnhem where Vitesse won courtesy of a late Nicky Hofs goal. Vitesse successfully cut off the supply lines to the dangerous Danijel Pranjic and bided their time in picking off an increasingly desperate Heerenveen on the break, Hofs lashing in a 30-yard stunner six minutes from time. Heerenveen slip behind PSV on the table after the Eindhoven side smashed six past a sorry-looking Den Haag. The front players all looked sharp with young guns Ola Toivonen and Nordin Amrabat (twice) on the scoresheet and the Hungarian Balázs Dzsudzsák hitting a hat-trick, one a fine, curling free-kick from 25 yards. Groningen kept up their run with a 2-0 win over 10-man NEC. Ramon Zomer felled Marcus Berg in the box on 25 minutes and saw red. Berg dusted himself down to convert from 12 yards and that was pretty much that. NEC rarely raided forwards and it was only a matter of time before Groningen hit a second to seal it. They had to wait until the hour mark when Koen van der Laak fired home from close range.
And so AZ remain nine clear at the top and looking completely unflustered, though Roda frustrated them for long periods in Wednesday night. It took 76 minutes for the league leaders to finally break through with Mounir El Hamdaoui's 20th league goal of the season proving enough.
And from there, we go straight into the weekend fixtures:
Saturday:
Roda v Sparta
Heerenveen v NAC
AZ v Willem II
Heracles v NEC
Sunday:
Utrecht v Den Haag
Vitesse v Ajax
Feyenoord v Groningen
De Graafschap v Twente
Volendam v PSV
Volendam's improvement will be sorely tested by a PSV side who seem to have found their feet quickly since Huub Stevens quit. Fortunately, their big relegation rivals also have tough games. De Graafschap will find it tough to get anything from FC Twente and Den Haag will, like everyone else who visits, do well to get anything from Utrecht. Roda v Sparta is the big one down at the bottom end with the winners moving clear, at least for a couple of weeks, and the losers deep in trouble. So that'll be a draw.
AZ are on a run of ten straight home wins and Willem II will be scalp number eleven there, with AZ cruising towards their first title since 1981. If Vitesse go as well as they did midweek, then Ajax's woes could increase. Though the Amsterdam side aren't winning, they are drawing a lot, but that isn't enough to maintain a credible title challenge. Groningen's good form should continue at hapless Feyenoord where that derby win papers over more than a few extreme cracks and Heerenveen look a good bet to get back on track against NAC. Game of the week is at Almelo where Heracles take on NEC. Both sides like to attack and are flimsy at the back so it should mean goals, goals, goals.
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