A poorly playing Ajax lost to ADO Den Haag at home thanks to a beautiful Wesley Verhoek goal and FC Twente holds on to league lead with a 2-1 win after conceding an early goal against surprising Excelsior in Enschede on Saturday.
After wins in big matches at PSV (1-0) in the Eredivisie and Werder Bremen (2-1) in the Champions League FC Twente seemed uninspired to take on Excelsior at home on Saturday. The title holders started on a false note when Leen van Steensel put the visitors 1-0 up in the second minute, but Twente fought back and managed to win 2-1 in the end.
Third ranked Ajax fell behind four points when they suffered their second home defeat of the season against ADO Den Haag on Sunday. PSV managed to stay in Twente’s footsteps with a hard fought 2-1 win at FC Utrecht. Both clubs finished the match with ten men due to red cards.
On Friday VVV-Venlo increased their gap with rock bottom Willem II to seven points with a 4-1 defeat at their rivals in the battle against relegation. Willem II faced an early red card for captain Arjan Swinkels after a handball in his own box. “There is a big difference between a handball on purpose and a ball which accidently hits your arm”, Swinkels said to his own defense. In the second half the match was suspended for twelve minutes because of abusive chanting by the home crowd towards referee Kevin Blom.
VVV-Venlo pushed Willem II into deep trouble on Friday. The second from bottom ranked team from Venlo defeated the ‘Tricolores’ 4-1 in Tilburg, which again left Willem II without a single victory this season. The rock bottom team has two points from 13 matches, which equals the Eredivisie record of Cambuur Leeuwarden, who took only two points from their first 13 matches in the 1993/1994 season.
Willem II was unlucky against VVV. Captain Arjan Swinkels was sent off in the 23rd minute for a handball in the box and Ruud Boymans converted the resulting penalty. “There is a big difference between a handball on purpose and a ball which accidently hits your arm”, Swinkels said to his own defense. “This wasn’t a red card at all”.
With ten men Willem II did not stand a chance. Ruud Boymans (49'), Balázs Tóth (53') and Diogo Viana (75’) increased the lead to 4-0 before Maceo Rigters scored the consolation goal for the home team in the 86th minute. Before that the match was suspended for 12 minutes because of abusive chanting by the home crowd towards referee Kevin Blom.
After wins in big matches at PSV (1-0) in the Eredivisie and Werder Bremen (2-1) in the Champions League FC Twente seemed uninspired to take on Excelsior at home on Saturday. The title holders started on a false note when Leen van Steensel put the visitors 1-0 up in the second minute. A surprise goal for the 15th ranked Rotterdam club, who did not find the back of the net in their last two matches.
Without the injured midfielders Theo Janssen and Wout Brama, who also missed the Bremen match on Tuesday, Twente was struggling to find their usual rhythm. Nacer Chadli helped the Tukkers back into the match when he equalized in the 26th minute, but Luuk de Jong, who also scored against Bremen, missed two good opportunities to put the home team in front before halftime.
In the second half goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov miraculously saved Twente when he kept a deflected shot from Nayib Lagouireh out of his goal. After Wout Brama came on as a substitute Marc Janko scored the winner of an assist from Denny Landzaat and Twente made sure to stay on top of the league this weekend.
Excelsior’s goal scorer Leen van Steensel was proud of his team’s display, but regretted the result. “It’s nice to receive the compliments, but you’re not getting points for that. Scoring an early goal is fun, but I’d rather have scored the 1-0 in the last minute.”
sc Heerenveen seemed to be cruising to victory when they were 2-0 up in at half time, but got into trouble when Heracles Almelo got back to 2-2 in the second half. An own goal by Heracles defender Birger Maertens in the 94th minute eventually got Heerenveen the hard fought win.
“We should have finished them of in the first half,” Heerenveen coach Ron Jans said. “We had enough chances and I think it would have been normal if we had scored at least four times.” However Michel Breuer (25’) and Roy Beerens (penalty 40’) were the only ones to score for the home team.
Willy Overtoom (penalty 70’) and Everton (76’) scored the Heracles goals in the second half. “We came back from a lost position and even had chances to win, then this result is very disappointing of course,” Heracles coach Peter Bosz said.
FC Groningen defender Andreas Granqvist scored all three goals in the Eredivisie match at home against NAC Breda on Saturday, but his team did not get an easy win. The Swede started the match with an own goal in the second minute, but converted to penalties before half time to secure the win for Groningen.
The first penalty followed from a clumsy handball by NAC’s Gábor Horváth and the second resulted from a handball by Milano Koenders, who got the ball on his arm after a goal attempt from Fredrik Stenman. Both spot kicks were dubious, but Granqvist kept his nerves and hit the target in the exact same manner twice.
Groningen grabbed its sixth home win in a row and thus secured fourth place in the Eredivisie this weekend. NAC coach Gert Aandewiel was angry with the referee especially because of the penalties. “You could say that the referee made some dubious decisions, which were not to our advantage.”
Björn Vleminkx jumped to the joint lead on the top scorers list of the Eredivisie on Saturday. The Belgian striker scored his third hat-trick of the season top hand NEC a 4-1 win at De Graafschap and raised his season total to 11 goals from 13 matches. Ajax’ Mounir El Hamdaoui is also on 11 goals, but he still has to play his 13th match of the season against ADO Den Haag on Sunday.
Nathaniel Will (21’) put the visitors 1-0 up after an assist from former De Graafschap midfielder Lasse Schöne in Doetinchem. Vleminkx doubled the score in the 28th minute, but former NEC winger Muslu Nalbantoglu kept the home chances alive when he scored 2-1 in the 51st minute.
Vleminkx scored again in the 61st minute and missed an opportunity to complete his hat-trick from the spot in the 74th minute. Ten minutes later he eventually did score his third goal of the evening with a cracking shot in the top corner.
Playing in the Champions League costs Ajax too much energy this season. After their 2-1 loss at AJ Auxerre on Wednesday coach Martin Jol’s squad lost 1-0 at home against ADO Den Haag on Sunday. Earlier this season Ajax lost 2-1 at home against FC Utrecht after their home match versus AC Milan and the club got a draw at Excelsior after their home tie against Auxerre.
Martin Jol again changed his three-man midfield line up against ADO leaving Eyong Enoh on the bench. Demy de Zeeuw, Siem de Jong and Rasmus Lindgren got their chance, but the three did not manage to control the midfield against an attacking ADO Den Haag. “We were playing messy and lost the ball a lot,” Ajax left winger Urby Emanuelson said: “We depend on Mounir El Hamdaoui and Luis Suarez too much and if they don’t deliver, we’re in trouble.” Due to the loss Ajax are trailing League leaders FC Twente four points and number two PSV three points.
Wesley Verhoek scored the only goal of the match when he beautifully curved the ball in the far corner after a fluent ADO attack in the 44th minute. ADO coach John van den Brom, who was a reserve player in the 1995 Ajax Champions League winning squad, considers himself to be a Louis van Gaal disciple and preaches the same attacking football style. “If you watch the matches we played, you could say this win is a provisional reward for the way we play and the work we’ve done.”
Graziano Pellè came on as a substitute for the fourth time this season and the Italian AZ striker scored for the fourth time. No other player managed to score so many goals as a substitute in the Eredivisie this season. Pellè’s goal was not enough for the win at Vitesse however. Ismail Aissati handed the home team a draw when he beautifully struck a ball in the top corner in the 90th minute.
Together with FC Groningen AZ are the only team in the Eredivisie who scored at least one goal in all of their thirteen matches this season, but they did not show much initiative after Pellè’s goal (47’) in Arnhem.
Vitesse were playing poorly when in ball possession and could not really frighten the AZ defense apart from Aissati’s last minute goal. When the newly appointed coach Albert Ferrer wants to play his beloved attacking game in FC Barcelona-style, he’ll have a lot of work to do with the current squad.
Balázs Dzsudzsák was the most important player for PSV again on Sunday. The Hungarian international scored twice in the hard fought 2-1 win at FC Utrecht. PSV played with ten men for almost an hour because Jonathan Reis received a red card in the 33rd minute. Utrecht also ended the match with ten after Jacob Lensky got a red card in the 74th minute.
Reis was sent off because he put an elbow into Alje Schut’s chest in an air struggle. A few minutes earlier Dzsudzsák scored the first goal from a rebound after a Ola Toivionen header. Utrecht did not take advantage from Reis’ red card and only managed to put some pressure on the PSV defense after striker Frank Demouge came on in the second half.
When Lensky was sent off because he fouled Ola Toivonen in the box and Dzsudzsák converted the penalty for 2-0, the match seemed to be over, but Demouge managed to put Utrecht on the scoreboard with a beautiful bicycle kick in the top corner in the 81st minute. The home team furiously attacked in the last nine minutes, but goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson held them off. PSV stays second on the ranking trailing FC Twente by one point.
Captain Ron Vlaar gave Feyenoord new power when he was back in the lineup after a two month absence. The central defender almost hit target with a powerful header in the tenth minute at home against Roda JC, but eventually couldn’t hand his team the win on Sunday: 1-1.
Feyenoord tried to put pressure on Roda and managed to push the fifth ranked team from Kerkrade with their back against the wall. However, the visitors were dangerously looking for counterattack opportunities and took advantage of a mistake by veteran defender André Bahia and Mads Junker headed home in the 24th minute.
Three minutes from time Feyenoord finally got the deserved reward for hard work and keeping faith, when Luc Castaignos headed home the equalizer.
Third ranked Ajax fell behind four points when they suffered their second home defeat of the season against ADO Den Haag on Sunday. PSV managed to stay in Twente’s footsteps with a hard fought 2-1 win at FC Utrecht. Both clubs finished the match with ten men due to red cards.
On Friday VVV-Venlo increased their gap with rock bottom Willem II to seven points with a 4-1 defeat at their rivals in the battle against relegation. Willem II faced an early red card for captain Arjan Swinkels after a handball in his own box. “There is a big difference between a handball on purpose and a ball which accidently hits your arm”, Swinkels said to his own defense. In the second half the match was suspended for twelve minutes because of abusive chanting by the home crowd towards referee Kevin Blom.
VVV-Venlo pushed Willem II into deep trouble on Friday. The second from bottom ranked team from Venlo defeated the ‘Tricolores’ 4-1 in Tilburg, which again left Willem II without a single victory this season. The rock bottom team has two points from 13 matches, which equals the Eredivisie record of Cambuur Leeuwarden, who took only two points from their first 13 matches in the 1993/1994 season.
Willem II was unlucky against VVV. Captain Arjan Swinkels was sent off in the 23rd minute for a handball in the box and Ruud Boymans converted the resulting penalty. “There is a big difference between a handball on purpose and a ball which accidently hits your arm”, Swinkels said to his own defense. “This wasn’t a red card at all”.
With ten men Willem II did not stand a chance. Ruud Boymans (49'), Balázs Tóth (53') and Diogo Viana (75’) increased the lead to 4-0 before Maceo Rigters scored the consolation goal for the home team in the 86th minute. Before that the match was suspended for 12 minutes because of abusive chanting by the home crowd towards referee Kevin Blom.
After wins in big matches at PSV (1-0) in the Eredivisie and Werder Bremen (2-1) in the Champions League FC Twente seemed uninspired to take on Excelsior at home on Saturday. The title holders started on a false note when Leen van Steensel put the visitors 1-0 up in the second minute. A surprise goal for the 15th ranked Rotterdam club, who did not find the back of the net in their last two matches.
Without the injured midfielders Theo Janssen and Wout Brama, who also missed the Bremen match on Tuesday, Twente was struggling to find their usual rhythm. Nacer Chadli helped the Tukkers back into the match when he equalized in the 26th minute, but Luuk de Jong, who also scored against Bremen, missed two good opportunities to put the home team in front before halftime.
In the second half goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov miraculously saved Twente when he kept a deflected shot from Nayib Lagouireh out of his goal. After Wout Brama came on as a substitute Marc Janko scored the winner of an assist from Denny Landzaat and Twente made sure to stay on top of the league this weekend.
Excelsior’s goal scorer Leen van Steensel was proud of his team’s display, but regretted the result. “It’s nice to receive the compliments, but you’re not getting points for that. Scoring an early goal is fun, but I’d rather have scored the 1-0 in the last minute.”
sc Heerenveen seemed to be cruising to victory when they were 2-0 up in at half time, but got into trouble when Heracles Almelo got back to 2-2 in the second half. An own goal by Heracles defender Birger Maertens in the 94th minute eventually got Heerenveen the hard fought win.
“We should have finished them of in the first half,” Heerenveen coach Ron Jans said. “We had enough chances and I think it would have been normal if we had scored at least four times.” However Michel Breuer (25’) and Roy Beerens (penalty 40’) were the only ones to score for the home team.
Willy Overtoom (penalty 70’) and Everton (76’) scored the Heracles goals in the second half. “We came back from a lost position and even had chances to win, then this result is very disappointing of course,” Heracles coach Peter Bosz said.
FC Groningen defender Andreas Granqvist scored all three goals in the Eredivisie match at home against NAC Breda on Saturday, but his team did not get an easy win. The Swede started the match with an own goal in the second minute, but converted to penalties before half time to secure the win for Groningen.
The first penalty followed from a clumsy handball by NAC’s Gábor Horváth and the second resulted from a handball by Milano Koenders, who got the ball on his arm after a goal attempt from Fredrik Stenman. Both spot kicks were dubious, but Granqvist kept his nerves and hit the target in the exact same manner twice.
Groningen grabbed its sixth home win in a row and thus secured fourth place in the Eredivisie this weekend. NAC coach Gert Aandewiel was angry with the referee especially because of the penalties. “You could say that the referee made some dubious decisions, which were not to our advantage.”
Björn Vleminkx jumped to the joint lead on the top scorers list of the Eredivisie on Saturday. The Belgian striker scored his third hat-trick of the season top hand NEC a 4-1 win at De Graafschap and raised his season total to 11 goals from 13 matches. Ajax’ Mounir El Hamdaoui is also on 11 goals, but he still has to play his 13th match of the season against ADO Den Haag on Sunday.
Nathaniel Will (21’) put the visitors 1-0 up after an assist from former De Graafschap midfielder Lasse Schöne in Doetinchem. Vleminkx doubled the score in the 28th minute, but former NEC winger Muslu Nalbantoglu kept the home chances alive when he scored 2-1 in the 51st minute.
Vleminkx scored again in the 61st minute and missed an opportunity to complete his hat-trick from the spot in the 74th minute. Ten minutes later he eventually did score his third goal of the evening with a cracking shot in the top corner.
Playing in the Champions League costs Ajax too much energy this season. After their 2-1 loss at AJ Auxerre on Wednesday coach Martin Jol’s squad lost 1-0 at home against ADO Den Haag on Sunday. Earlier this season Ajax lost 2-1 at home against FC Utrecht after their home match versus AC Milan and the club got a draw at Excelsior after their home tie against Auxerre.
Martin Jol again changed his three-man midfield line up against ADO leaving Eyong Enoh on the bench. Demy de Zeeuw, Siem de Jong and Rasmus Lindgren got their chance, but the three did not manage to control the midfield against an attacking ADO Den Haag. “We were playing messy and lost the ball a lot,” Ajax left winger Urby Emanuelson said: “We depend on Mounir El Hamdaoui and Luis Suarez too much and if they don’t deliver, we’re in trouble.” Due to the loss Ajax are trailing League leaders FC Twente four points and number two PSV three points.
Wesley Verhoek scored the only goal of the match when he beautifully curved the ball in the far corner after a fluent ADO attack in the 44th minute. ADO coach John van den Brom, who was a reserve player in the 1995 Ajax Champions League winning squad, considers himself to be a Louis van Gaal disciple and preaches the same attacking football style. “If you watch the matches we played, you could say this win is a provisional reward for the way we play and the work we’ve done.”
Graziano Pellè came on as a substitute for the fourth time this season and the Italian AZ striker scored for the fourth time. No other player managed to score so many goals as a substitute in the Eredivisie this season. Pellè’s goal was not enough for the win at Vitesse however. Ismail Aissati handed the home team a draw when he beautifully struck a ball in the top corner in the 90th minute.
Together with FC Groningen AZ are the only team in the Eredivisie who scored at least one goal in all of their thirteen matches this season, but they did not show much initiative after Pellè’s goal (47’) in Arnhem.
Vitesse were playing poorly when in ball possession and could not really frighten the AZ defense apart from Aissati’s last minute goal. When the newly appointed coach Albert Ferrer wants to play his beloved attacking game in FC Barcelona-style, he’ll have a lot of work to do with the current squad.
Balázs Dzsudzsák was the most important player for PSV again on Sunday. The Hungarian international scored twice in the hard fought 2-1 win at FC Utrecht. PSV played with ten men for almost an hour because Jonathan Reis received a red card in the 33rd minute. Utrecht also ended the match with ten after Jacob Lensky got a red card in the 74th minute.
Reis was sent off because he put an elbow into Alje Schut’s chest in an air struggle. A few minutes earlier Dzsudzsák scored the first goal from a rebound after a Ola Toivionen header. Utrecht did not take advantage from Reis’ red card and only managed to put some pressure on the PSV defense after striker Frank Demouge came on in the second half.
When Lensky was sent off because he fouled Ola Toivonen in the box and Dzsudzsák converted the penalty for 2-0, the match seemed to be over, but Demouge managed to put Utrecht on the scoreboard with a beautiful bicycle kick in the top corner in the 81st minute. The home team furiously attacked in the last nine minutes, but goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson held them off. PSV stays second on the ranking trailing FC Twente by one point.
Captain Ron Vlaar gave Feyenoord new power when he was back in the lineup after a two month absence. The central defender almost hit target with a powerful header in the tenth minute at home against Roda JC, but eventually couldn’t hand his team the win on Sunday: 1-1.
Feyenoord tried to put pressure on Roda and managed to push the fifth ranked team from Kerkrade with their back against the wall. However, the visitors were dangerously looking for counterattack opportunities and took advantage of a mistake by veteran defender André Bahia and Mads Junker headed home in the 24th minute.
Three minutes from time Feyenoord finally got the deserved reward for hard work and keeping faith, when Luc Castaignos headed home the equalizer.
