PSV’s lead in the Eredivisie has been cut to four points after Peter Bosz’s side relied on a controversial penalty to avoid defeat at home to AZ Alkmaar.

Mickael Lahdo put the visitors ahead at the end of the first half with a curling shot after Troy Parrott had spurned two good chances to open the scoring for AZ.

Luuk de Jong equalised within a minute of coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute, only for Mexx Meerdinck to restore AZ’s lead. But five minutes from time De Jong equalised from the spot after referee Danny Makkelie penalised Ruben van Bommel for handball.

Van Bommel protested he was moving his arm behind his back when the ball struck, but the decision was upheld by the VAR panel. “It’s difficult for me to saw my arm off,” the defender said afterwards. “If you ask me it wasn’t a penalty.”

Ajax made heavy weather of beating bottom club RKC Waalwijk, but prevailed with an early penalty scored by Steven Berghuis and a second goal before half-time from Kenneth Taylor. Former PSV prodigy Mo Ihattaren continued his comeback at RKC by pulling a goal back four minutes from time.

Haller impact

Sébastian Haller made an instant impact on his return to Utrecht as Ron Jans’s side beat Feyenoord to strengthen their hold on third place with their first win in De Kuip since 2014.

The Ivory Coast striker came off the bench after an hour, moments before Niklas Vesterlund gave Utrecht the lead with a header from a corner. Five minutes later Haller combined with Yoann Cathline to set up a second goal for Paxton Aaronson, before Feyenoord reduced the deficit with a Santiago Giménez penalty.

Twente midfielder Sem Steijn took his goal tally for the season to 15 with a hat-trick in a 6-2 thrashing of Willem II. Willem II twice equalised in the first half, but a penalty from Steijn early in the second half opened the floodgates, while midfielder Daan Rots had a hand in three of Twente’s six goals.

Heerenveen held off NAC for a 4-2 win to move into the top half of the table. Robin van Persie’s side made a strong start as Jacob Trenskow and Alireza Jahanbakhsh both scored in the opening 13 minutes.

Elias Mór Ómarsson twice converted Jan Van den Bergh’s long throw-ins as NAC came back to 3-2 and an equaliser by Van den Bergh was ruled out for offside, before Ilias Sebaoui secured the points for Heerenveen in injury time.

Breum treble

Danish winger Jakob Breum bagged all three goals as Go Ahead Eagles kicked off the second half of the season with a 3-0 win at Fortuna Sittard.

Koki Ogawa’s goal was enough to earn NEC their first win in two months at PEC Zwolle, as the Japanese striker converted Dirk Propper’s through-ball with a cool finish.

In the bottom of the table clash, Sparta missed the chance to overtake Heracles Almelo and move out of the relegation play-off slot as Justin Hoogma equalised with a late header.

Almere stay 17th after new coach Jeroen Rijsdijk’s first match in charge of the Flevoland club at Groningen ended in a goalless draw.

Results

Friday

Fortuna Sittard 0-3 Go Ahead Eagles

Saturday

Ajax 2-1 RKC Waalwijk

PEC Zwolle 0-1 NEC Nijmegen

PSV Eindhoven 2-2 AZ Alkmaar

Sunday

Feyenoord 1-2 Utrecht

Groningen 0-0 Almere City

NAC Breda 2-4 Heerenveen

Twente Enschede 6-2 Willem II Tilburg