Feyenoord stay on top of the Eredivisie despite being held to a draw in Twente as nearest rivals AZ Alkmaar also shared the points with Utrecht in a 10-goal thriller.

The results mean just six points separate Feyenoord from fifth-placed Twente, as Ajax ended a seven-game streak without a win and PSV rebounded from their midweek defeat at Emmen.

Feyenoord took the lead in Enschede after 30 minutes when Santiago Gimenez headed in Sebastian Szymanski’s pullback, only for Joshua Brenet to equalise from an almost identical move in the 68th minute.

The Rotterdammers then looked to have been denied a clear penalty when Robin Pröpper swiped a high cross away with his hand, a decision branded ‘unacceptable’ by coach Arne Slot.

AZ turned around an early 2-0 deficit against Utrecht to lead 3-2 after just 33 minutes, with Vangelis Pavlidis bagging two smash-and-grab goals after his Greek compatriot Tasos Douvikas had scored twice for Utrecht.

But after Nick Viergever poked home an equaliser shortly before half-time, Douvikas – who also had a goal disallowed for offside – swept in a cross from Taylor Booth to complete his hat-trick.

Mees de Wit levelled the scores just five minutes later and AZ looked to be going top of the table when Pavlidis bagged his third on 78 minutes, only for Sander van de Streek to nod the ball over AZ goalkeeper Mathew Ryan two minutes later for the fourth and decisive equaliser of the match.

Ajax stop rot

Following the departure of Alfred Schreuder, Ajax’s interim coach John Heitinga enjoyed a winning start at Excelsior to end the club’s worst run of results since the 1960s.

Dusan Tadic scored the opener from the penalty spot and set up the crucial second goal for Davy Klaassen just before half-time, after Excelsior had levelled through Redouan El Yaakoubi. Mohamed Kudus and Devyne Rensch added to the scoreline in the second half.

PSV stayed in touch with the leaders with a workmanlike victory at home to Go Ahead Eagles, with goals from Joey Veerman and Anwar El Ghazi. ‘I thought the reaction from the team today was excellent,’ coach Ruud van Nistelrooy said, referring to the 1-0 loss in midweek at Emmen.

The Drenthe side slipped back into the play-off zone with a 2-0 defeat at RKC, while Volendam beat Groningen 3-2 in the relegation battle with a late goal from Robert Mühren to consign their opponents to a seventh straight loss.

Cambuur remain level on points with their northern rivals at the bottom after their match against Fortuna Sittard turned on a VAR intervention in the 78th minute, with the Friesland side leading 1-0 through Mees Hoedemakers’ first-half strike.

Fortuna Sittard’s Rodrigo Guth was shown a red card for a foul in the area and Cambuur were awarded a penalty, only for the video panel to rule that Fortuna should have been given a spot-kick seconds earlier for a foul on Burat Yilmaz. Guth stayed on the field, Yilmaz dispatched the penalty for Fortuna and Inigo Córdoba completed the comeback with the winning goal six minutes later.

Vitesse eased their relegation worries by coming from behind at Heerenveen to record their first win in nine matches, while Sparta and NEC shared the points in a 1-1 draw in Nijmegen.

Results

Saturday

AZ Alkmaar 5-5 Utrecht

Heerenveen 1-3 Vitesse Arnhem

NEC 1-1 Sparta Rotterdam

PSV Eindhoven 2-0 Go Ahead Eagles

RKC Waalwijk 2-0 Emmen

Sunday

Cambuur Leeuwarden 1-2 Fortuna Sittard

Excelsior 1-4 Ajax

Twente Enschede 1-1 Feyenoord

Volendam 3-2 Groningen