Yet another exciting weekend has been and gone in the Eredivisie and Will Burns is here describing all the action.

• Ajax fall to shock defeat in Groningen
• Amazingly AZ loses a 4-0 lead away to Sparta Rotterdam
• Feyenoord fire four past Willem II to top the table
• RKC and PEC Zwolle game on Saturday suffers COVID-19 postponement

FC Utrecht and sc Heerenveen played out a 1-1 draw on Friday night with Johnny Jansen’s men taking the lead after just four minutes. Big Henk Veerman got of a Rodney Kongolo through ball and powered a finish home past Maarten Paes in the home goal.

However, it was tied up just before half-time after Leeds United target Gyrano Kerk hit a low drive from the edge of the box which was powerful enough to beat Heerenveen keeper Erwin Mulder. Despite, both sides having efforts in the second half, the game finished all square which sent Jansen’s side top of the Eredivisie table on 10 points from the four rounds of games.

On Saturday, RKC were due to host PEC Zwolle but unfortunately the game was the first in the 2020/21 Eredivisie season to be postponed due to COVID-19 issues. Four RKC players and two staff members tested positive for the virus on Friday and eight players were forced to quarantine. The Waalwijk side confirmed that the decision to cancel the match was made following conversations between the KNVB’s doctor, the RKC club doctor and the Dutch public health service.

Vitesse racked up their third win in four games under Thomas Letsch at home to Heracles with an comfortable 3-0 victory. The German was pleased to see his side go in for the halftime break two goals to the good thanks to Luis Openda and Oussama Darfalou.

The Belgian Openda took advantage of a tight offside ruling to slot home a slick pass from Matus Bero on 34 minutes and the lead was doubled three minutes later. Oussama Tannane, Openda and Darfalour linked up well for the latter to tap home from close range.

The game was wrapped up just after the hour mark through Tannane against his old club. The goal was created from a fantastic long ball from Riechedly Bazoer, sitting in his new position at centre-back. Bazoer’s ball was nodded on by Darfalou into Tannane’s path for the midfielder to drive it home. A great win for Vitesse, however Frank Wormuth’s Heracles have now suffered two heavy defeats away from home, after experiencing a 4-0 defeat in Tilburg to Willem II on week two.

ADO Den Haag clinched their first victory of the campaign away to VVV-Venlo with a late winner in game which featured a crazy first five minutes. VAR awarded a handball decision on VVV’s Roy Gelmi which was unfortunate for the defender under this new ruling. Gelmi’s hand was coming down after jumping for a header and it collided with the ball for a spot-kick.

Shaquille Pinas sent the keeper the wrong way but the visitors would not be celebrating for long as Greek striker Giorgos Giakoumakis levelled the score up two minutes later. This was his fourth goal of the season and his first since scoring a hat-trick on his side’s opening fixture.

However it would be the side from Den Haag that would grab the win with debutant David Philipp grabbing a 93rd minute goal to make it 2-1. Philipp, a loanee signing from Werder Bremen, was a 80 minute substitute and made an immediate impact finishing a flick on from Vicente Besuijen.

Ron Jans’ FC Twente had to settle for a point at home to FC Emmen but it started well with Vaclav Cerny finding himself on the scoresheet again. The Czech forward scored for the third game in a row on 48 minutes with a dubious goal. Ramiz Zerrouki robbed Emmen’s Simon Tibbling on the edge of his own half which looked like it could have been deemed a push. However, play continued and Cerny finished to make it 1-0.

On 65 minutes, Michael de Leeuw grabbed an equaliser which would prove to be the last goal of the game. Twente goalkeeper Joel Drommel parried a Glenn Bijl effort into De Leeuw’s path for a simple tap home. This result has Twente in sixth with Emmen in 15th place with just two points from four games so far.

On Sunday lunchtime, Ajax suffered their defeat away to FC Groningen in an empty Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion. The Amsterdammers were sporting their new horrendous away shirt (sorry I don’t like it). The shirt features pale grey and white diamonds and looks a mess, it resembles the USA national team away shirt in 1994 or the Manchester United shirt in 1997 which Alex Ferguson blamed for being humped 7-3 off Southampton.

The shirt certainly did not do Erik ten Hag’s team any favours in a drab forgettable game. After a poor first half, the hosts took the lead on 49 minutes through Remco Balk. Ajax keeper Andre Onana parried a shot from Jorgen Strand Larsen into Balk’s path to slot home.

The goal work Ajax up and they pressed for an equaliser but poor finishing and a lack of creativity meant only two of their 18 shots landed on target and on 74 minutes it could have been worse for the Amsterdammers had Ramon-Pascal Lundqvist not hit the outside of the post with his effort on the edge of the area.

The woodwork helped Groningen out shortly before full-time as Klass-Jan Huntelaar and Dusan Tadic smashed the crossbar consecutively in the area when it looked easier to score. Even with eight minutes of added time, Ajax failed to score a goal and Groningen celebrated a great win. Ajax boosted their attacking options by bringing Davy Klaassen home from Werder Bremen on Monday.

Feyenoord fared better away to Willem II smashing four past the Tilburgers on Saturday even though Adrie Koster’s men took the lead on 13 minutes. Who else but Vangelis Pavlidis who got the goal, unmarked the Greek striker sidefooted home an Sebastien Holmen corner.

Dick Advocaat’s men responded well and were level through Ridgeciano Haps on 22 minutes after new signing Joao Teixeira held up the ball well in the area before playing Haps in to finish. Just after the half-time oranges, Bryan Linssen scored his first goal for the club to make it 2-1 after Willem II’s defenders failed to clear the ball, the former Vitesse winger was on hand to push the ball past Robbin Ruiter.

Steven Berghuis scored his fourth and fifth of the season to round out the win on 56 and 77 minutes. That man Teixeria was involved again, playing in the arriving Berghuis on the edge of the box, to simply stroke home or he made it look simple anyways.

The final goal saw Berghuis display a phenomenal piece of skill. Goalkeeper Ruiter was caught out on the right side of his penalty area and Berghuis pinched the ball and lofted it perfectly into the goal over the rushing Willem II defence. Strong start for Advocaat’s Feyenoord who sit joint top with PSV and Heerenveen.

PSV climbed to the top with a routine 2-0 win over Fortuna Sittard which saw the highly-rated Mohamed Ihattaren relegated to the subs bench by coach Roger Schmidt. It has been widely discussed that the young midfielder is out of favour with Schmidt and that certainly seemed the case on Sunday afternoon, however the German coach claimed that Ihattaren had suffered a knock earlier in the week. Additionally, the 18-year-old did pull out of the Dutch national squad this weekend.

However, Schmidt’s men were in front early on through a Donyell Malen strike. Linking up well with new Israeli target man Eran Zahavi, Malen ran onto a ball from his colleague that split the Sittard defence and slotted home with ease.

The Eindhoven side had to wait for a second goal and the impressive Noni Madueke grabbed his second of the season five minutes from time. The Englishman replaced Zahavi on the hour mark and used his speed and power to finish off a bursting counter attack.

Finally, AZ Alkmaar arrived in Rotterdam in poor form with just two draws from their two games, at home to PEC Zwolle and away at Fortuna Sittard. Arne Slot’s men must have thought their lucky was changing when they took an early lead against Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday.

New signing Jesper Karlsson from Swedish Allsvenskan side Elfsborg, made an immediate impact with two assists in the first 15 minutes. The Swede whipped in a great ball to the back post for Zakaria Aboukhlal to catch out Sparta stopper Benjamin van Leer at this near post to head home after just nine minutes of play. The second came five minutes after with Karlsson linking up with Dani de Wit in the area to make it 2-0.

Slot must have been on cloud nine after it was 3-0 on 19 minutes, again with Aboukhlal scoring. Sparta pair Jeffrey Fortes and Bart Vriends got caught out passing in their own half with the young winger nicking the ball and finishing. The game looked done and dusted on 33 minutes when De Wit scored his second of the game to put AZ four goals ahead heading home a Fredrik Midtsjo long range free-kick.

However, it all then went wrong for the Alkmaar side when captain Teun Koopmeiners smashed a spot-kick off the crossbar before half-time. After Mica Pinto was punished for a handball by referee Danny Makkelie, the AZ talisman uncharacteristically placed his shot too high which missed the chance to make it 5-0. Then came the second half onslaught from Henk Fraser’s Sparta…

AZ goalkeeper Marco Bizot was penalised for an horrific error picking up his own goal-kick after he failed to meet Koopmeiners with his pass. Abdou Harroui blasted home the indirect free-kick on the edge of six yard box for a consolation goal… right? Wrong.

It was 4-2 after 64 minutes and full-back Dirk Abels wrong footed Bizot in goal with a long range effort but surely AZ was not going to let their four goal lead slip any further…?

Entering the last five minutes of the game, Marco Bizot saw his second yellow for a foul on Sparta’s Aaron Meijers and Makkelie awarded the Rotterdammers a spot-kick. Substitute keeper Hobie Verhulst had no chance with Lennart Thy’s conversion in the top right corner of the net. It was 4-3.

Disaster struck for AZ just a minute later when failed to clear their lines and Sven Mijnans hit a powerful low drive into the Verhulst’s left corner to dramatically clinch an unlikely point. A 4-4 all draw and once again Arne Slot must be thinking what is next as we all think how did this team push Ajax to the limit last year?

Major trouble in Alkmaar who head into the international break knowing that a win on the 17th October against VVV-Venlo is a must.

RESULTS

Friday 2nd October 2020

FC Utrecht 1-1 sc Heerenveen

Saturday 3rd October 2020

Vitesse 3-0 Heracles

RKC Waalwijk 0-0 PEC Zwolle

VVV-Venlo 1-2 ADO Den Haag

FC Twente 1-1 FC Emmen

Sunday 4th October 2020

FC Groningen 1-0 Ajax

Sparta Rotterdam 3-4 AZ Alkmaar

Willem 1-4 Feyenoord

PSV 2-0 Fortuna Sittard

TotalDutchFootball.com

The third round of fixtures in the Eredivisie is in the books and Will Burns is on hand to report on all the action.

• AZ’s woes continue as Fortuna-te Sittard grab late point
• Despite being a man down, Antony and Mohammed Kudus excel once again for Ajax
• PSV held to a 1-1 draw away to Heracles as Feyenoord smash four past ADO

FC Twente easily defeated FC Groningen by 3-1 on Friday evening thanks to goals from Vaclav Cerny, Danilo and substitute Alexander Jeremejeff.

Former Ajax forward Cerny opened the scoring on 22 minutes despite already having a goal ruled out for offside on 13 minutes with VAR’s assistance. It took the VAR officials numerous minutes to make a decision and all of the angles of the cameras looked as though Cerny was indeed onside.

Danilo added a second before half-time through yet another Eredivisie goalkeeping error from Sergio Padt. The ability for goalkeeper to pass the ball has been stressed by many managers in the Dutch top flight, however Sergio Padt added more evidence that this tactic should be avoided after he played the ball straight into the Brazilian’s feet to slot home from long range.

Swedish striker Jeremejeff, a summer signing from German side Dynamo Dresden, slotted home a third to wrap up the victory that leaves Twente undefeated after three games and Groningen sitting with just three points from three outings.

Sparta Rotterdam‘s woes continued with a 4-0 humping away to PEC Zwolle on Saturday afternoon. Henk Fraser’s men are yet to even score a goal in the Eredivisie this season and sit afoot of the standings.

It was quite the even game at MAC³PARK stadium until Mica Pinto was dismissed by referee Allard Lindhout after the Portuguese defender handballed on the line. Reza Ghoochannejhad converted the spot kick in first-half stoppage time.

The Iranian made it 2-0 soon after the restart before Clint Leemans made it 3-0 on 54 minutes. Japanese centre-back Yuta Nakayama completed the rout heading home from a corner to make it four on 71 minutes. Sparta head back to Rotterdam with their third defeat in as many games.

I talked in the season preview about how AZ Alkmaar had now joined Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord as the Eredivisie’s “Big Four” now but at this early stage in the season, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This past Saturday, they drew 3-3 away to Fortuna Sittard and looked a shadow of their former selves that pushed Ajax to the limit last season. The pressure on Arne Slot and the team was mounting up as they conceded within 10 minutes through a long range strike from Zian Flemming. The 22-year-old ghosted through the midfield and the AZ defenders failed to close him down as he planted a perfect shot past Marco Bizot.

Dani de Wit equalised on 23 minutes and AZ pressed for another goal before the break but with winger Zakaria Aboukhlal going close and the usually prolific Myron Boadu missed a sitter and the sides went into half-time all square.

On 52 minutes, AZ took the lead as Teun Koopmeiners took advantage of a Aleksei Coselev mistake before a Branislav Ninaj error looked to give AZ the points. He dwelled on the ball in his own half and ended up getting robbed by De Wit, who carried the ball towards goal. As Coselev closed the ball down, De Wit played to Boadu who tapped home on 70 minutes. Which all but cement the win for Slot’s men… right?

No, Fortuna failed to give up and Emil Hansson grabbed a goal for the hosts ten minutes before the end before dramatically Flemming caught Bizot out at his near post five minutes into stoppage which sent the 3,000 fans in attendance into raptures. AZ return home with just a point and Slot and his staff must be wondering – where did it all go wrong?

Joey Veerman continued his fine form as he converted a penalty to score the only goal of the game in sc Heerenveen‘s win over VVV-Venlo, however Joey’s game was not all rosy.

The midfielder suffered two fouls that earned VVV players red cards and the second forced him to leave the field with a knock. Tobias Pachniok (63) and Simon Janssen (79) were given straight reds as the visitors ended the match with only nine men.

Ajax had a scare at the Johan Cruijyff Arena against Vitesse and also experienced a dismissal as Pol van Boekel gave Edson Alvarez his marching orders near the end of the first half for two consecutive fouls on Maximillian Wittek and Luis Openda. The latter foul included a stamp from Alvarez which was picked up by VAR and the red card was issued.

The visitors started the game well going close through Belgian striker Openda after three minutes but it was Ajax who found themselves in the lead after 21 minutes of play. Quincy Promes finished a swift Amsterdammers’ counter attack but Vitesse continued to play some good football and levelled up after the sending off.

Riechedly Bazoer came back to haunt his former employees on 56 minutes smashing a ball into the roof of the net from just inside the box. As the home crowd whistled, Bazoer celebrated emphatically.

Although celebrations were cut short as Ajax put a smile back on the crowd’s faces with a goal from Brazilian Antony, which capped off a phenomenal performance from the summer signing from Sao Paulo. Another signee Mohammed Kudus carried the ball powerfully up the field and played Antony in on the left side and the winger smashed home a finish first time to take the lead.

The combination of Kudus and Antony are incredibly impressive and one wonders if anyone will actually remember the losses of Hakim Ziyech and Donny van der Beek come the end of the season. These two boys are some talents, not only are they replacements for the players that have moved on, they could prove to be improvements within the next nine months.

On Sunday, Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag clashed in the early kick-off with the Rotterdammers coming out on top by four goals to two. The visitors took the lead as Jonas Arweiler took advantage of a Lutsharel Geertruida error to smash a post past Justin Bijlow from close range. The young full-back swiped at a ball looped into the area and missed it completely and it fell lovely for the German to hit home.

The score was level at half-time as Geertruida turned zero to hero and scored his first senior goal on 27 minutes heading home a Steven Berghuis corner. In the second half, Argentine defender Marcos Senesi got the hosts ahead with a piece of sublime finishing. A corner was in danger of being cleared before the ball perfectly landed to the Argentine to scissor kick over Luuk Koopmans in the ADO goal.

The De Kuip raptures were silenced on 66 minutes when Bijlow brought down Arweiler in the area but the German hit a poor penalty that was easy for Bijlow to save. However, VAR reaction was that the keeper came off his line too early and Shaquille Pinas stepped up for the retake to make it 2-2.

Two minutes later, Luciano Narsingh made it 3-2 and a Steven Berghuis penalty kick cemented the 4-2 win at De Kuip. The win has Dick Advocaat’s side in third on seven points behind Ajax and Heerenveen.

PSV stumbled to a 1-1 draw away to Heracles in a disappointing performance from Roger Schmidt’s side. Just over 3,000 spectators were socially distancing in the Erve Asito and gave PSV’s “dodgy keeper” Yvon Mvogo some stick every time he got a touch of the ball after his past fortnight of errors.

The hosts were awarded a penalty after a “hand-ball” from Nick Viergever, in which a ball hit him on the shoulder. VAR reviewed it and gave it and former PSV youth player Rai Vloet scored against his old club. Schmidt made the brave decision of a triple substitute at half-time and PSV were awarded of a penalty of their own on 50 minutes.

Sub Noni Madueke was tripped by Teun Bijleveld and German left-back Philipp Max hammered it low in the left corner to tie the game. Despite, the Eindhoven side’s efforts for a winner it was Frank Wormuth’s Heracles that kept the Mvogo busy.

The semi-forgiven Sylvester van der Water, who tried to push a move to the MLS and Orlando City last week… yes you read that right, got a run out and nearly found a way through to grab a winner. Don’t worry Sylvester, Disneyland is closed at the moment.

FC Emmen and Willem II also played out a 1-1 draw with the hosts taking the lead through Michael de Leeuw after just five minutes of play. Vangelis Pavlidis unselfishly played in Tresor to level the game in the 13th minute and that’s where the scoring concluded although Emmen finished the game with ten men after Glenn Bijl picked up two yellow cards.

RKC are still looking for their first points of the season after FC Utrecht defeated Fred Grim’s men by 3-1. Utrecht looked a class above their counterparts throughout but took 40 minutes to break the deadlock, Mimoun Mahi tapping home Django Warmerdam’s low cross from the left wing.

However, RKC grabbed an leveller just before the hour mark with Romanian striker Vitalie Damascan, loaned in from Serie A side Torino, silencing the Utrecht fans with a strong finish from a rapid counter attack.

After many attempts to grab the lead again, Utrecht’s Gyrano Kerk got his side back in the lead on 74 minutes before a Sander van der Streek header finished RKC off with a third five minutes from time. RKC joined ADO and Sparta at the foot of the table with no points from three games.

RESULTS

Friday 25^th September 2020

FC Twente 3-1 FC Groningen

Saturday 26^th September 2020

PEC Zwolle 4-0 Sparta Rotterdam

Fortuna Sittard 3-3 AZ Alkmaar

sc Heerenveen 1-0 VVV-Venlo

Ajax 2-1 Vitesse

Sunday 27^h September 2020

Feyenoord 4-2 ADO Den Haag

FC Utrecht 3-1 RKC Waalwijk

Heracles 1-1 PSV

FC Emmen 1-1 Willem II

TotalDutchFootball.com

Well the second week of the Eredivisie had it’s moments and Will Burns is back to review the weekend’s happenings.

• Despite another Yvon Mvogo mishap, PSV overcome Emmen
• Willem II continue their goal scoring exploits versus Heracles
• Ajax stroll past the challenge of RKC Waalwijk

The action started with the first Friday night game of the season with VVV-Venlo, hot off their eight goals thriller against FC Emmen last weekend hosting FC Utrecht who were appearing in their opening game of the season.

Utrecht were due to play AZ Alkmaar in the opening round of fixtures last weekend, but the KNVB postponed the game to help AZ prepare for the Champions League qualifier against Dynamo Kyiv, which looked to do AZ anything but a favour.

Venlo took the lead after just eight minutes with Guus Hupperts opening his account for his new side, tapping home from close range after last week’s three goals hero Georgios Giakoumakis whipped a ball into the Utrecht box.

The game finished 1-1 however after Sean Klaiber leveled for the visitors in the 58th minute after some good line-up play between Klaiber, Minoum Mahi and Gyrano Kerk. Despite either side trying to breach each other’s goal the game ended all square.

PSV escaped with a 2-1 win at the Philips Stadion against FC Emmen on Saturday evening. On 21 minutes, things were going well for PSV as youngster Noni Madueke tapped home in the six yard box, getting on the end of a Philipp Max cross.

Usually, the heavens would open in Eindhoven and the goals would flow, however, this what not the case. Emmen pressed and forced Swiss goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo into some decent stops but the new stopper would be at fault for the second week in a row.

Mvogo, with the help of his defence, were caught out last week and conceded a poor goal to Groningen after an exchange of passes in their own area. A big defensive no-no. This week, the keeper found himself purely to blame. He was brought in by the club as a sweeper keeper and his passing and ball control was lauded by the staff at the club. Although, a simple backpass from Max caught Mvogo out and in pure Peter Enckelman style, the ball sailed into the goal with just seven minutes to go.

However, PSV’s blushes (and the keeper’s) were spared as Argentine substitute Maxi Romero headed home four minutes into injury time to take all three points. After the ball hit the net, the TV cameras focused on Mvogo to show his relieved face. The keeper definitely owes the young Argentine a post-match pint of Bavaria at the club house.

Arne Slot’s AZ Alkmaar continued what was a bad week for the week with a 1-1 draw at home to PEC Zwolle. AZ crashed out of the Champions League last Tuesday away to Dynamo Kyiv in a lacklustre display by the Alkmaar side.

On Saturday, the week got worse as Calvin Stengs was dismissed by referee Serdar Gözübüyük on just 17th minutes for a high tackle from behind on Kenneth Paal. Although the incident took place three minutes later, VAR gave the ref the advice to send the winger off.

By half-time, Slot had a further headache as his side found themselves a goal down with Clint Leemans put Zwolle ahead on 38 minutes with a looping shot from the outside of the box that chipped Marco Bizot in goal.

Myron Boadu got the ten-men level in the second half finishing off a parry from Michael Zetterer from a Tijani Reijnders shot. Boadu failed to hit it cleanly which stranded the goalkeeper. Zwolle found themselves a man down near to full-time with Thomas Lam being given his marching orders.

The Finnish defender was involved in a scuffle with AZ striker Ferdy Druijf which saw the young striker lose his “man card” after a horrendous piece of over-acting relating to a meek kick he received from Lam. Shame on you Ferdy Druijf!

Vitesse got their season in the Gelredome underway with a 2-0 win against Henk Fraser’s Sparta Rotterdam. They took the lead from a wonderful long-range free-kick from Oussama Tannane that got the 4,914 attendance to their feet.

Before half-time Sparta had a mountain to climb as Belgian defender Michael Heylen was dismissed for his second yellow card. on 42 minutes. On-loan striker Armando Broja (borrowed from Chelsea) cemented the win eight minutes from time, tapping in a rebound from close range.

sc Heerenveen continued their winning ways, making it two victories from two with a 3-1 away win against Fortuna Sittard with the Friesland side scoring three goals in 19 minutes in the first half.

Oliver Batista Maier open the scoring on 15 minutes after a Henk Veerman layoff in the area. It was 2-0 after Maier was brought down by Roel Janssen and Joey Veerman converted. The third came from big Henk who showed a great bit of skill to convert from a Arjen van den Heide pass.

The young winger played the ball into the big man and Henk controlled, backheeled himself into space to smash the ball into the roof of the net. Sittard defender Branislav Ninaj was turned inside out. Johnny Jansen’s men could have extended their lead but it was Sittard that got a goal back through former QPR striker Sebastian Polter.

FC Groningen got their season back on track with a 1-0 away win against ADO Den Haag on Sunday morning. Despite the absence of Arjen Robben, who was injured last weekend, an own goal from Shaquille Pinas on 23 minutes was enough to send the Green and White Army home the victors.

Dick Advocaat’s Feyenoord were held to a 1-1 draw against FC Twente in De Kuip. Former Ajax forward Vaclav Cerny shocked the Rotterdammers scoring after a Queensy Menig stole the ball from Marc Diemers inside the area. The ball fell to Danilo and the Brazilian flicked onto Cerny after just 99 seconds.

The game was 1-1 before half-time through Steven Berghuis penalty, which was his second of the game. Young left-back Jayden Oosterwolde showed his immaturity by pulling down Lutsharel Geertruida in the area. Berghuis stepped up and saw the spot-kick saved by Joel Drommel. While sprinting to hammer home the rebound, Julio Pleguezuelo slid in and fouled Berghis for another penalty to be awarded. The strange collection of events ended with Berghuis notching the second penalty.

Feyenoord pressed for a winner but to no avail as Ron Jans’s side left Rotterdam with a point and Advocaat’s men join AZ off the pace from Ajax and PSV at this early stage. Early days indeed, but pressure is on for both teams not to slip up in any games in the near future.

Heracles suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat away to Willem II. The Almelo side were rocked on Saturday evening by Silvester van der Water texting head coach Frank Wormuth that he would not be available for the match. The reason: his displeasure with clashes between his agent and the club not being able to agree a deal that would allow to winger to join MLS side Orlando City. A million dollar football talent, with a ten cent brain. Good luck with that attitude kid!

With the preparation potentially for the game out of the window for Wormuth, it certainly looked to be the case as Willem II, who scored five midweek against Europa League opponents Progres Niederkorn, scored four second-half goals.

Greek striker, as standard, was amongst the goals notching twice on 46 and 84 minutes with Gorkem Saglam and debutant John Yeboah, signing from Wolfsburg last week, getting the other goals.

Finally, Ajax dispatched RKC Waalwijk with ease in the last game of the weekend with a 3-0 victory. The 9,800 attendance did not have to wait for the first goal in the Johan Cruijff Arena as Dusan Tadic (who else?) notched after just ten minutes of play.

A Qunicy Promes shot was blocked by the RKC defence but fell perfectly for the Serbian to flick the ball home. After a Zakaria Labyad goal was chalked off by VAR on three minutes later, the midfielder did get his goal in the 34th minute to send Ajax in at half-time two goals to the good.

New signing Mohammed Kudus slotted the ball over to Noussair Mazraoui on the right wing who crossed for Labyad for the 2-0. In the second half, Luuk Wouters harshly saw red for RKC after a VAR decision that he felled Labyad while he was through on goal. Although the midfielder was actually sandwiched between two men before crumbling to the ground, Wouters took the fall.

Soon after, Erik ten Hag’s side finished the scoring through a Lisandro Martinez header from a Tadic cross. That’s two wins from two for the Amsterdammers and two defeats in a row for Fred Grim’s RKC Waalwijk.

RESULTS

Friday 18^th September 2020

VVV-Venlo 1-1 FC Utrecht

Saturday 19^th September 2020

AZ Alkmaar 1-1 PEC Zwolle

Vitesse 2-0 Sparta Rotterdam

PSV 2-1 FC Emmen

Fortuna Sittard 1-3 sc Heerenveen

Sunday 20^th September 2020

ADO 0-1 FC Groningen

Feyenoord 1-1 FC Twente

Willem II 4-0 Heracles

Ajax 3-0 RKC Waalwijk

TotalDutchFootball.com