Feyenoord held on to their three-point lead in the Eredivisie after a nerve-shredding victory over Utrecht.

Ayase Ueda opened the scoring after 20 minutes of a first half dominated by Feyenoord when he rounded Vasilis Barkas and stroked the ball into the empty net.

Gjivai Zechiël, on loan from the Rotterdam club, equalised for Utrecht at the start of the second half, but Sem Steijn quickly restored the lead from close range and shortly afterwards missed a glorious chance for 3-1.

Derry Murkin brought Utrecht level again with eight minutes left to play, but Ueda proved to be the matchwinner in the 88th minute when he looped the ball over Barkas from a prone position for his eighth league goal of the season.

PSV cruised to a 4-0 win at PEC Zwolle, with Dennis Man scoring his first Eredivisie goal as part of a makeshift front line with Guus Til and Couhaib Driouech. Ismail Saibari, Joey Veerman and substitute Ryan Flamingo were also on the scoresheet.

Ajax scraped a point at Sparta Rotterdam with a 97th-minute equaliser from substitute Oscar Gloukh, who was dropped from the starting line-up after the 4-0 midweek defeat at Marseille.

Ajax were 3-1 down after 55 minutes as Mitchell van Bergen and Joshua Kitolano took advantage of huge gaps in the visitors’ defence. Wout Weghorst launched the fightback with a cultured right-foot shot in the 73rd minute, before Gloukh salvaged Ajax’s unbeaten record with a shimmy and shot in injury time.

Groningen win again

Groningen kept up their bright start to the season with a 2-1 win at NAC, thanks to a first goal by Breda-born Tika de Jonge and a dribble and shot by Thom van Bergen, set up by goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen.

Heerenveen moved out of the bottom three with an astonishing late comeback at home to Excelsior, who took an 11th-minute lead through Irakli Yegoian and missed a sackful of chances to add to the score.

Dylan Vente equalised with an 89th-minute penalty after Adam Carlén hauled down Luuk Brouwers, and four minutes into injury time Sam Kester rubbed salt into the wound with a thunderbolt from 30 metres.

Twente revival

Twente continued their recovery under John van den Brom with a late comeback against local rivals Heracles, who went ahead through a header from a corner by defender Ivan Mesik.

Max Bruns equalised with a similar goal 10 minutes from time before Thomas van de Belt bagged what proved to be the winner with a shot from outside the penalty area. Twente had to fend off a late offensive by Heracles after defender Bart van Rooij was shown a red card two minutes from the end.

AZ, still reeling from their 4-0 midweek defeat in Cyprus at AEK Larnaca, edged past Telstar with a penalty by Mexx Meerdinck and a first goal for the club for winger Matej Sin, who tapped in at the second time of asking after his chip over goalkeeper Ronald Koeman came back off the post.

Go Ahead Eagles snatched a point against NEC in injury time when Gerrit Nauber headed in from a corner. The Eagles had gone behind in the first half when a header by Koki Ogawa came back off the post and hit the back of the luckless Jari de Busser.

Fortuna Sittard kept up their unbeaten home record as Justin Lonwijk, standing in for the injured Mo Ihattaren, smashed in a low cross by Dimitros Limnios for the only goal against Volendam.

Results

Friday

NAC Breda 1-2 Groningen

Saturday

Fortuna Sittard 1-0 Volendam

Heerenveen 2-1 Excelsior

PEC Zwolle 0-4 PSV Eindhoven

Sparta Rotterdam 3-3 Ajax

Sunday

AZ Alkmaar 2-1 Telstar

Feyenoord 3-2 Utrecht

Go Ahead Eagles 1-1 NEC Nijmegen

Twente Enschede 2-1 Heracles Almelo