Twente overcome lacklustre PSV to leave Ajax on top of Eredivisie

Václav Černy scores his second for Twente after 24 minutes. Photo: ANP/Olaf Kraak
Václav Černy scores his second for Twente after 24 minutes. Photo: ANP/Olaf Kraak

Two first-half goals by Czech winger Václav Černy condemned PSV to their first defeat of the season in Enschede, leaving Ajax as the only Eredivisie club with a 100% record.

Černy’s scuffed shot after 17 minutes gave Twente the lead and he smashed in a rebound seven minutes later. Guus Til pulled one back early in the second half but Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side were unable to find an equaliser.

Van Nistelrooy said the defeat was hard to take, coming in the wake of PSV’s elimination in the Champions League play-offs by Glasgow Rangers. ‘This doesn’t belong in a PSV shirt,’ he told NOS. ‘We threw the game away in the first half.’

PSV slipped to fourth place in the table behind Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar, while Twente climbed to fifth, just a point behind their opponents.

Ajax rarely got out of second gear as they overcame Cambuur Leeuwarden 4-0 in the Johan Cruyff Arena, with Steven Bergwijn scoring twice in the first half before Devyne Rensch and transfer-seeking Mohammed Kudus sealed the points after the break.

Feyenoord emerged victorious from a see-saw game at Go Ahead Eagles in which the hosts took a 2-0 lead in the first 13 minutes. Two goals by Danilo levelled the scores at half-time and the comeback was completed with Sebastian Szymanski’s 35-yard piledriver after 79 minutes to make the score 4-2. Oliver Edvardsen bundled in a consolation late in injury time.

Go Ahead are one of two teams to have lost all five of their opening games along with Fortuna Sittard, who lost by the same scoreline at home to Utrecht on Friday. All the goals came in a breathless last half-hour, with substitute Anastasios Douvikas scoring a hat-trick to earn Henk Fraser his first win as coach of Utrecht.

AZ Alkmaar brushed aside Emmen 3-0 with three goals in the opening 34 minutes to go third in the table, while Emmen’s northern rivals Groningen went down 1-0 at home to Vitesse Arnhem, who notched up their first win of the season thanks to a second-half daisycutter from Matúš Bero.

RKC Waalwijk also got off the mark with a 5-2 win over newly promoted Excelsior despite going 1-0 down to Julian Baas’s scissor kick after 15 minutes. RKC exploited Excelsior’s weakness at corners twice to turn the game around by half-time, before scoring three times in the last 15 minutes, including a header by the smallest man on the field, Vurnon Anita.

Sparta’s new Japanese loan signing Koki Saito made an immediate impact in the club’s 4-0 win over Volendam. He was instrumental in the build-up to the second goal by Tobias Lauritsen and set up the last two for Lauritsen and Sven Mijnans.

Heerenveen salvaged a point at home to NEC despite losing Tibor Halilovic just after the hour mark for a clumsy challenge on Elayis Tavsan. The Nijmegen side were unable to exploit the advantage and had to settle for their third draw in a row.

Results

Friday

Fortuna Sittard 3-4 Utrecht

Saturday

Ajax 4-0 Cambuur Leeuwarden

Go Ahead Eagles 3-4 Feyenoord

Sparta 4-0 Excelsior

Twente Enschede 2-1 PSV Eindhoven

Sunday

Emmen 0-3 AZ Alkmaar

Groningen 0-1 Vitesse Arnhem

Heerenveen 0-0 NEC Nijmegen

RKC Waalwijk 5-2 Excelsior

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