Ajax took a giant step towards their 37th Eredivisie title with a clinical 2-0 victory against defending champions PSV in Eindhoven.

Only a calamity will prevent the championship trophy going to Amsterdam for the first time in four seasons, after Ajax extended their lead to nine points with seven league matches left to play.

PSV attacked from the start in a game they had to win, but Ajax were solid in defence and carved out the better chances. Kenneth Taylor went closest after swapping passes with Mika Godts and shooting narrowly wide across goal, while Brian Brobbey fluffed a header from in front of goal.

The breakthrough came 10 minutes before half-time when a Jordan Henderson free-kick looped off the top of the wall and fell at the feet of Davy Klaassen, who pirouetted and shot low inside Walter Benitez’s near post.

After Luuk de Jong and Sergiño Dest had passed up good chances to equalise, Ajax wrapped up the points as Bertrand Traoré collected a long kick-out by Mateus on the right wing, cut inside and rolled the ball beyond Benitez into the far corner.

PSV coach Peter Bosz effectively conceded the title afterwards as he said his team needed to focus on safeguarding second place. “It’ll be really bad for Ajax if they give it away from here,” he said.

Utrecht stay third

Utrecht held on to third place and closed the gap on PSV to six points with a cagey 2-0 win against Heerenveen. Miguel Rodriguez steered in the opening goal in the 23rd minute after good combination play by Sébastian Haller and Siebe Horemans, before Nikolai Hopland put the ball past his own goalkeeper early in the second half.

Feyenoord also kept in the hunt for the runners-up spot after Igor Paixão’s late strike decided a pulsating contest with Go Ahead Eagles. The Brazilian collected a pass on the left-hand side of the area and created a space between two defenders before shooting past Jari de Busser.

Earlier Go Ahead had twice equalised through Victor Edvardsen at the end of the first half and Oliver Antman early in the second half, after Jakob Moder opened the scoring from the penalty spot and Anis Hadj Moussa restored the lead with a dribble and shot.

Almere City moved off the bottom of the table as they inflicted a fifth successive defeat on Willem II in their relegation clash.

Charles-Andreas Brym poked home the first goal in the 12th minute as he pounced on a blunder by goalkeeper Thomas Didillon-Hödl, while Willem II’s uphill task was made even harder when Kyan Vaesen was sent off for a late tackle before half-time. Marvin Martins headed in a second for Almere early in the second half.

Willem II sinking

The gap between Willem II in 16th place and the safety zone grew as rivals Sparta and PEC Zwolle both won.

PEC sent RKC Waalwijk to the foot of the table with a Dylan Vente penalty and a well-worked move from a corner that was started and finished by Filip Krastev.

Sparta won 3-0 at Fortuna Sittard with a double by Shunsuke Mito and a first goal from on-loan Feyenoord midfielder Gjivai Zechiël.

AZ Alkmaar went 3-1 up early in the second half at NEC when Troy Parrott swept in Ernest Poku’s pass. But the home side came back with two goals in eight minutes by Kento Shiogai and Vito van Crooij to claim a point against the cup finalists.

Van Crooij also equalised in the 10th minute after Ibrahim Sadiq’s neat back-heel had given AZ an early lead, while the home side almost snatched a winner when Mexx Meerdinck hit the post in injury time.

NAC Breda and Groningen each scored from the penalty spot to share the points, while two goals by Jizz Hornkamp settled the Twente derby in favour of Heracles and all but ended their rivals’ hopes of repeating last season’s third-place finish.

Results

Saturday

Fortuna Sittard 0-3 Sparta Rotterdam

NAC Breda 1-1 Groningen

NEC Nijmegen 3-3 AZ Alkmaar

PEC Zwolle 2-0 RKC Waalwijk

Willem II Tilburg 0-2 Almere City

Sunday

Feyenoord 3-2 Go Ahead Eagles

Heracles Almelo 2-1 Twente Enschede

PSV Eindhoven 0-2 Ajax

Utrecht 2-0 Heerenveen