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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 25th September 2020
FC Twente 3-1 FC Groningen
Saturday 26th 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 27h 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
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