Championship chasing Vitesse Arnhem shot themselves in the foot and give a big boost to PSV, Feyenoord and Ajax in the title race. Wilfried Bony and co let a 3-0 lead slip at Roda to let the team placed in 17th gain a point in a 3-3 thriller.
Roda JC 3 (Malki 63P, Demouge 70, Donald 90)
Vitesse Arnhem 3 (Havenaar 26, 36, Bony 55)
Vitesse with Theo Janssen and Patrick van Aanholt returning to the team, played limp and lost two vital points in their challenge for the title and Champions League football. The visitors had an early scare when Mitchell Donald hit the post for Roda, but tall striker Mike Havenaar added two first half games to set them cruising. The first goal, Havenaar headed from a Renato Ibarra pass and ten minutes later he grabbed a second with Wilfried Bony assisting. The Ivorian added his own goal and the 30th of the Eredivisie season and 36 in all competitions on 55 minutes. The game was over… or so Vitesse thought.
Roda did not give up and a handball in the box from Jan-Arie van der Heijden gave them a lifeline, Sanharib Malki took the opportunity and gave the home fans belief. Fighting for their Eredivisie survival, took the game by the horns and battled a second goal from the on-loan striker Frank Demouge. Substitute Guus Hupperts played Demouge in and he smashed the ball passed Piet Velthuizen and brought his team back to 3-2. Roda coach Ruud Brood smelt blood added another striker to the mix and Mikolaj Lebedynski entered the fray. Eloy Room was needed by Vitesse late on due to an injury to Velthuizen but within minutes the fresh goalkeeper was beaten.
Luckily for the reserve goalkeeper, Malki was declared offside on 85 minutes. Roda must have thought their luck was out until Mitchell Donald headed a 90th minute leveller.
A quick note on Wilfried Bony, with the third goal today being his 36th in all competitions, he has now tied for record for Vitesse that Greek striker Nikos Machlas created in the 1997-1998 season.
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NAC Breda 2 (Lurling 82, Hooi 85)
NEC Nijmegen 0
In a mid-table battle, NAC Breda left it late to defeat NEC to move up to eleventh in the league. It was the 82nd minute when Anthony Lurling got the Breda fans inside the Rat Verlegh Stadion cheering. Elson Hooi added the a second and sealed the three points for NAC with just five minutes to go. Both goals that Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Babos, also captain of the team, could have saved, but was poor in the posts this evening. Strangely enough, Babos has signed for NAC Breda and will head there at the end of the season. With this win, NAC look clear of relegation worries.
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Heracles 0
FC Groningen 2 (Texeira 62, Bacuna 76P)
Two second half goals clinched the points for Groningen away to Heracles which moved the Pride of the North up to seventh. First goal came just after the hour mark, when Heracles failed to clear a huge kick from goalkeeper Marco Bizot, and David Texeira pounced on the loose ball, edged into the box and finished superbly.
A black cat invaded the pitch soon after and brought the home side nothing but bad luck. Defender Thomas Bruns tripped Slovenian winger Andraž Kirm on what looked to be the edge of the box, the referee pointed to the penalty spot to much protest from the Black and White stripes. Leandro Bacuna smashed the penalty home past Remko Pasveer to cement the win for the visitors.
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ADO Den Haag 1 (van Duinen 41)
FC Twente 3 (Douglas 24, Bulykin 81, 83)
Russian striker Dmitry Bulykin, former player of ADO, came on late and made in the difference in this match with two goals in the closing stages. At that time, ADO was playing with a man less, after the red card of Danny Holla.
it was until the 24th minute that Twente took the lead, by Brazilian defender Douglas. A free-kick was swung ion from the left and after a scramble in the box, the big defender was in the right place in the right time to put his team in front. ADO were level before the break, when Aaron Meijers fed Mike van Duinen through on goal and Twente’s Bulgarian keeper Nikolai Mihailov could not stop the equaliser.
After an hour, however, followed a setback for Den Haag. Holla was punished for a foul on Wout Brama and received his second yellow card. This meant that the home team had to go without their captain for the remainder, and to make matter worse, coach Maurice Steijn was also sent to the stands. Twente went on the offensive and goal opportunities came for Dusan Tadic, who shot twice wide and a blast of Felipe Gutierrez also just went wide. Then on 74 minutes, substitute Bulykin made his entrance and grabbed two goals in as many minutes.
The first was orchaeasted by Nader Chadli, dribbling the ball through the ADO defence and feeding the Russian in to score. The final nail in ADO’s coffin was Bulykin latching on the rebound after an attempt by Tadic after Gino Coutinho palmed away the Serbian’s chipped attempt.
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LEAGUE TABLE
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