A penalty by Kenneth Taylor was enough for Ajax to notch up their 10th successive league win at PEC Zwolle and preserve their eight-point lead over PSV.

Taylor scored in the 61st minute of a largely forgettable encounter after his shot struck the elbow of PEC defender Anselmo Garcia Mac Nulty.

Striker Brian Brobbey is a doubt for the second leg of Ajax’s Europa League tie against Eintracht Frankfurt after he had to go off in the 15th minute after suffering a knock to the knee.

Head coach Francesco Farioli said his team, which kept a clean sheet for the fifth successive Eredivisie match, said his players had shown “character”.

“They’re doing something really special,” he said. “We’re missing a few players, which means we sometimes go beyond our limits, but that’s how it goes.”

PSV won for only the second time in 2025, but again struggled to convert their dominance into goals against Heerenveen.

Ismael Saibari supplied a glancing finish to Guus Til’s cross to score the first just before half-time, after Luuk de Jong and Noa Lang had both missed gilt-edged chances to take the lead.

Til added the second with a turn and shot after 57 minutes, before Levi Smans dispatched a low strike under Walter Benitez in the 72nd minute to set up a temse finish.

Haller breaks duck

Utrecht held on to third place after fending off a late comeback by Willem II in Tilburg.

The home side took the lead when Mickaën Tirpan’s free-kick eluded the defence and was smashed in by Boris Lambert at the far post.

Sébastian Haller finally broke his scoring drought since returning to Utrecht to head in a 67th-minute equaliser, before Noah Ohio was given space to find the top corner from 20 metres out.

Rúnar Thór Sigurgeirsson looked to have salvaged a point for the relegation-threatened Tilburgers with seven minutes to play, but Adrian Blake grabbed the points two minutes later with a shot that seemed to catch out goalkeeper Thomas Didillon-Hödl.

Twente took advantage of Feyenoord’s weekend off to move up to fourth with a gritty 1-0 win against bottom club Almere, as Sem Steijn scored from close range to bag his 20th goal of the season.

“Stupid” Schöne

Go Ahead Eagles prevailed by the odd goal in five against 10-man NEC, after Lasse Schöne was shown two yellow cards early in the second half.

The veteran midfielder was dismissed for protesting too hard against his first booking for brushing Mats Deijl’s face with his hand. “It was stupid, absolutely,” Schöne said afterwards.

The visitors struggled to find a way past Robin Roefs in the NEC goal, but went 1-0 up after Dean James scored in the 41st minute.

Go Ahead looked to have wrapped up the points when Milan Smit added a second with a flashing header after 66 minutes.

But Brayann Pereira’s shot was deflected into the net off James two minutes later to reduce the deficit, before Antman drilled in a third for the Eagles in the 75th minute. Kento Shiogai headed a second for NEC in injury time, but it was too late to make a difference.

Fortuna Sittard kept their hopes of a play-off finish alive as Kristoffer Peterson’s penalty was enough to beat Heracles Almelo.

Carel Eiting gave Sparta an early lead at NAC when he buried Tobias Lauritsen’s pullback in the bottom corner. But NAC equalised in the second half when Leo Sauer’s swerving shot beat Nick Olij from range, and the Brabant side held on after Leo Greiml was sent off 15 minutes from time for a lunging tackle.

Results

Friday

NAC Breda 1-1 Sparta Rotterdam

Saturday

PSV Eindhoven 2-1 Heerenveen

Sunday

PEC Zwolle 0-1 Ajax

Twente Enschede 1-0 Almere

NEC 2-3 Go Ahead Eagles

Willem II 2-3 Utrecht

Postponed

AZ Alkmaar v RKC Waalwijk (Tuesday, April 1)

Feyenoord v Groningen (Wednesday, April 2)