Feyenoord maintained their three-point lead in the Eredivisie with a comfortable 4-2 win at Fortuna Sittard, while nearest rivals Ajax had a harder task in Arnhem.

The league leaders were in control by half-time in Sittard thanks to an own goal by Ximo Navarro, a thundering strike by Mats Wieffer and an easy finish by Santiago Gimenez after Alireza Jahanbaksh had profited from a defensive blunder.

Fortuna threatened to make the second half more competitive when Delroy Duarte found the net early in the second half, but substitute Igor Paixao restored Feyenoord’s three-goal lead minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Ajax travelled to Vitesse still smarting from their Europa League exit at the hands of Union Berlin, but managed to come back from 1-0 down thanks to an opportunistic tap-in from Davy Klaassen and a second-half header by Edson Alvarez.

PSV stayed in the hunt and all but ended Twente’s fading challenge with a 3-1 home win against the team from Enschede. Fabio Silva marked his first start for PSV with a header in the ninth minute.

Twente equalised just after half-time when Virgil Misidjan’s floating cross drifted over the head of Walter Benitez into the net, but Luuk de Jong’s 100^th goal for PSV and a fine solo effort by Xavi Simons secured the points.

AZ Alkmaar stay third, five points behind Feyenoord, after beating Cambuur Leeuwarden 2-1. The Alkmaarders looked to be heading for a routine win with goals from Vangelis Pavlidis and Walter Goes, but had to survive a late scare when Bjørn Johnsen pulled one back from the spot before an offside flag denied Remco Balk a late equaliser.

Cambuur struggling

Cambuur are now four points adrift of Groningen at the bottom of the table after the northerners ended an 11-match winless run with a 3-0 win against Excelsior.

Emmen salvaged a point against Go Ahead Eagles through Ole Romeny’s improvised scissor kick in the last minute, while Volendam remain just above the drop zone after losing 3-0 at NEC.

RKC are up to eighth place after staging a remarkable comeback at Heerenveen, who were in control for an hour but only had Sydney van Hooijdonk’s 35^th-minute strike to show for it.

Florian Jozefzoon, one of three half-time substitutes for RKC, equalised with his team’s first shot on goal after 61 minutes and the visitors went on to score three more, including a second for Jozefzoon in injury time.

Utrecht won a bad-tempered contest on Friday night at Sparta to draw level on points with their opponents, who stay sixth thanks to a superior goal difference. Utrecht’s Danish midfielder Victor Jensen broke the deadlock with a diagonal shot in the 74^th minute before two late goals on the counter gave the scoreline a flattering sheen.

Results

Friday

Sparta Rotterdam 0-3 Utrecht

Saturday

AZ Alkmaar 2-1 Cambuur Leeuwarden

Groningen 3-0 Excelsior

Heerenveen 1-4 RKC Waalwijk

NEC Nijmegen 3-0 Volendam

Sunday

Emmen 2-2 Go Ahead Eagles

Fortuna Sittard 2-4 Feyenoord

PSV Eindhoven 3-1 Twente Enschede

Vitesse Arnhem 1-2 Ajax