A late goal by Mats Wieffer in the teeming rain saved Feyenoord’s blushes against ten-man RKC and strengthened their grip on the second Champions League qualifying spot in the Eredivisie.

Wieffer struck after Feyenoord had missed a hatful of chances in De Kuip. Goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen performed heroics for RKC in the first half, but was harshly sent off when the ball brushed against his arm outside the penalty area.

“We had enough chances today. We were cleared off the line twice and missed an open goal,” said Weiffer. “We didn’t make it easy for ourselves, especially when you think you should win against 10 men.”

FC Twente are now eight points behind in third after former Feyenoord favourite Jens Toornstra scored the only goal in a 1-0 win for Utrecht, who set a new club record of 14 games unbeaten to continue their resurgence.

PSV retained their 10-point lead in the table after cruising to victory against Heracles in the Friday night match. Luuk de Jong and Oliver Boscagli scored in each half after Heracles defender Bryan Limbombe was sent off in the 13th minute for a heavy challenge on De Jong.

AZ win at last

AZ Alkmaar booked their first win in seven matches against Fortuna Sittard thanks to a last-minute strike by Dani de Wit. Fortuna went ahead in the first half when Ingo Cordoba intercepted a short defensive pass, before Vangelis Pavlidis scrambled in an equaliser for his 21st goal of the season.

AZ opened up a four-point gap on Ajax, who had to settle for a draw despite twice taking the lead at home to NEC. Ajax coach John van ‘t Schip admitted his team still lacked “balance” after an injury-time goal by Rober González earned NEC a draw in the Johan Cruyff Arena.

Go Ahead Eagles are just two points behind Ajax in sixth place after winning 2-0 at Heerenveen with second-half strikes by Scandinavian substitutes Jakub Breum and Victor Edvardsen.

Chaos in Arnhem

The chaos at bottom side Vitesse Arnhem intensified as the club announced interim managing director Peter Rovers will leave at the end of the season. Rovers was involved in trying to steer through a takeover bid by the US-based Common Group that was rejected last week by the KNVB’s licensing committee.

On the pitch, Vitesse could only manage a draw against fellow strugglers Volendam. Bilal Ould-Chikh put Volendam ahead after just two minutes, but Vitesse responded three minutes later with a goal by left-back Mica Pinto.

The result leaves both teams five points behind RKC in the automatic relegation places and eight short of 15th-placed Excelsior, who went 2-0 up at Sparta in 16 minutes but ended up losing 4-2.

A stunning long-range strike by Thomas Robinet lit up a stodgy encounter between PEC Zwolle and Almere and earned the visitors a 1-0 win to lift them to 11th place in the table, level on points with PEC.

Results

Friday

PSV Eindhoven 2-0 Heracles Almelo

Saturday

Fortuna Sittard 1-2 AZ Alkmaar

Heerenveen 0-2 Go Ahead Eagles

PEC Zwolle 0-1 Almere

Sparta Rotterdam 4-2 Excelsior

Sunday

Ajax 2-2 NEC Nijmegen

Feyenoord 1-0 RKC Waalwijk

Twente Enschede 0-1 Utrecht

Vitesse Arnhem 1-1 Volendam