De Graafschap 2-0 Heerenveen
NEC 0-0 Willem II
PSV 2-0 Vitesse
Sparta 1-0 Heracles
Roda 2-0 Den Haag
AZ 0-0 Feyenoord
NAC 0-3 Ajax
Volendam 0-0 Utrecht
Twente 2-1 Groningen
Just 13 goals in round 28 - a paltry return and just one more than the record low of 12 set a few years ago. It's said that every side has a blip. Barcelona certainly had theirs, Lyon have had more than a few over the past three seasons, but AZ simply haven't. Well, maybe they have when they lost their opening two games, or is this week's insipid 0-0 with Feyenoord what passes for a blip down Alkmaar way? After starting in their cutomary, swaggeringly confident style, it all rather petered out and their play fell apart when they approached the opposition penalty area, perhaps highlighting the importance to their play of the suspended Demy de Zeeuw. Without him, they looked comfortable if unthreatening. Stijn Shaars had a couple of good chances, but the best opportunities went Feyenoord's way with Roy Makaay spurning a glorious first half chance and Luigi Bruins blazing over when found expertly by Makaay late on.
Twente and Ajax both kept their winning runs going. Groningen were down to ten men very early on after a comical handball by Andreas Granqvist on the edge of his own area. Twente dominated and goals from Blaise N'Kufo and Peter Wiesgerhof were enough to render a late consolation from Marus Berg just that. Ajax had Luis Suarez back to his mercurial best in beating NAC 3-0. He scored the third and was a general nuisance throughout. Ajax have a tradition of goal scoring defenders and full-backs Thomas Vermaelen and Gregory van der Wiel were both on target.
PSV got back to winning ways in an open game against Vitesse. Ibrahim Afellay had been through a quiet period, but was back to his best in the 2-0 win. Another to have impressed lately has been Ola Toivonen, only arrived from Malmo in January, and those were the two to get the goals in a thoroughly professional display. Heerenveen were tripped up away against De Graafschap who lifted themselves off the bottom in the process. In a game more entertaining than it ought to have been, Heerenveen paid the price for overelaboration and were twice caught on the break, first by on-loan Chelsea striker Ben Sahar and, late on with the visitors pressing, Peter Jungschlager. That dropped Volendam back down to the bottom and they could only manage a goalless draw at home to Utrecht in a game best forgotten. NEC and Willem II also failed to produce a goal at Nijmegen.
Nine-man Heracles went down by a goal to nil at Sparta. Edouard Duplan got the goal shortly after Mark Looms saw his second yellow and was dismissed and Birger Maertens followed in stoppage time as Sparta eased their worries. Den Haag aren't out of danger after going down in Kerkrade. Goals from Andres Oper and Sekou Cissé helped Roda to a win that keeps them just out of the automatic relegation spots and pull them within two of ADO.
No comments:
Post a Comment