Sparta 2-1 Willem II
Waalwijk 0-6 AZ
Den Haag 0-1 Twente
Heerenveen 1-0 Vitesse
PSV 4-3 Ajax
Heracles 0-1 Feyenoord
Roda 1-0 NEC
Utrecht 2-2 VVV Venlo
Groningen 1-2 NAC
The first Classic of the season very much lived up to it's billing on Sunday lunchtime. An absolutely blistering game produced seven goals with the home side edging it by the odd one. A superb advert for Eredivisie football saw Ajax go a goal ahead within 90 second, Luis Suarez profiting from PSV keeper Andreas Isaaksson's generosity. Suarez wasted a glorious chance to double the lead, spurning support and going for a crazy lob before Balazs Dzsudzsak showed why Arsenal are sniffing around with a rocket of a free-kick to bring the scores level. Suarez put Ajax back in front within a few seconds, though debate still rages as to whether it's the Uruguyan's goal or an Andre Ooijer own goal. You decide. After the break, some Dzsudzsak trickery and vision set up Otman Bakkal to square it up once again before the Hungarian put his side in front with another free-kick, fooling everyone by going for goal and beating Maarten Stekelenberg. Ajax drew level through another super goal, Urby Emanuelson slamming home from the edge of the box. And they could and probably should have had the chance to go back in front when Suarez was felled in the box by Ooijer, but the reputation Suarez has built up over the years convinced the referee there was nothing amiss. Replays suggest otherwise. Instead, Bakkal's second won it. Phew. It was an incredible game in which Dzsudzsak was the undoubted star. Just a great game of football. More please.
Twente end the weekend top of the pile, their single goal from the skipper Blaise N'Kufo enough to secure the win. The big Swiss finally put a chance away as Twente built from the back in a game they utterly dominated. AZ, meanwhile, hammered Waalwijk 6-0. There were braces for Mounir El Hamdaoui and Maarten Martens, Moussa Dembele and Jeremain Lens with the others as Waalwijk's tough baptism continues. In contrast, the other promoted club, VVV, are winning friends and points, if not games and again had their Japanese star Keisuke Honda to thank as they drew with Utrecht. He set up the opener for Sandro Calabro before a Dries Mertens double put Utrecht ahead. Honda's absolute toaster squared it back up with twelve to go. VVV will be doing well to hold into Honda at this rate.
Mads Junker's solitary goal was enough for Roda to see off NEC who ended with ten men when Niels Wellenberg was dismissed in the dying moments. Jon Dahl Tomasson got the only goal for Feyenoord as they too were 1-0 winners over Heracles and the same scoreline, courtesy of Hernan Losada, was enough for Heerenveen to see off Vitesse.
Elsewhere, 2-1 also proved popular as Sparta recorded their first win of the season, coming from behind against Willem II and NAC got past Groningen. But at the end of the round of fixtures, everyone was talking about the events at the Philips Stadion.
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