Homeless AZ top Eredivisie as Ajax and PSV notch up first wins

Oussama Idrissi, who scored both goals in AZ Alkmaar's 2-0 win against RKC Waalwijk, celebrating with team-mates Myron Boadu and Calvin Stengs.
Oussama Idrissi (centre) scored both AZ's goals against RKC Waalwijk. Photo: Jan den Breejen/HH
Oussama Idrissi, who scored both goals in AZ Alkmaar's 2-0 win against RKC Waalwijk, celebrating with team-mates Myron Boadu and Calvin Stengs.
Oussama Idrissi (centre) scored both AZ’s goals against RKC Waalwijk. Photo: Jan den Breejen/HH

AZ Alkmaar and Utrecht share the early lead in the Eredivisie as the only teams to win their opening two matches.

AZ won 2-0 at newly promoted RKC Waalwijk, Oussama Idrissi scoring both goals, but Arie Slot’s team have big questions hanging over their heads after a section of their stadium roof was brought down on Saturday in strong winds.

The Alkmaar club will have to find alternative venues for their next home games, including Thursday’s Europa League return second leg tie against FC Mariupol and Sunday’s league match against Groningen.

‘Your first thought is to be glad it wasn’t worse and nobody was injured,’ said Slot. ‘But as a trainer you also think about what it means for your home advantage, because for the last few years that I’ve been working at AZ we’ve been good at home.’

Utrecht trail AZ on goal difference after they came from behind to beat PEC Zwolle at home. Gustavo Hamer fired PEC into a 16th-minute lead with a free-kick, but in the second half Sander van de Streek, Simon Gustafsson from the penalty spot and Willem Janssen found the net to secure the points.

Ajax are third after they beat Emmen 5-0 in their first home game of the season. Donny van de Beek, the subject of intense speculation that he may be about to move to Real Madrid, gave the Amsterdammers a first-half lead before Hakim Ziyech, Dusan Tadic and a brace from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar consigned the side from Drenthe to the foot of the table.

Last year’s Jupiler league winners FC Twente also have four points after emerging the winners of an incident-packed game in Groningen. Each team missed a penalty before Keito Nakamura opened the scoring for Twente with a free-kick 10 minutes into the second half.

By then Groningen were down to nine men with the dismissals of Ramon Lundqvist and Mike te Wierik, the latter following the intervention of the VAR panel. Aitor Cantalapiedra seemed to have put the game out of Groningen’s reach when he scored the game’s third penalty on 70 minutes, but Ritsu Doan’s breakaway goal six minutes from time ensured a nerve-jangling finish until Haris Vukcic scored Twente’s third in injury time.

PSV toil

PSV laboured to a 3-1 win at home to ADO Den Haag, going behind to Tomas Necid’s first-half thunderbolt before Bruma levelled just before half-time. Donyell Malen and Cody Gakpo proved the difference in the second half, while Hirving Lozano was forced to go off after 50 minutes after suffering a foot injury.

Sparta followed up their draw in the Rotterdam derby on the opening weekend with a 4-1 home win over VVV Venlo, with all four of their goals coming in the second half. Feyenoord, meanwhile, could only manage a draw in Heerenveen, as Steven Berghuis’s penalty on the stroke of half-time was matched by Ibrahim Dresevic’s spectacular long-range strike.

Vitesse Arnhem joined the clutch of teams on four points with a 2-0 victory in Tilburg, while Fortuna Sittard and Heracles both got off the mark as Mark Diemers’s last-gasp penalty for Fortuna earned the Limburgers a 1-1 draw.

Results

Friday

Sparta Rotterdam 4-1 VVV Venlo

Saturday

Ajax 5-0 Emmen

Fortuna Sittard 1-1 Heracles Almelo

Groningen 1-3 Twente

Sunday

Fortuna Sittard 1-1 Heracles

Heerenveen 1-1 Feyenoord

PSV 3-1 ADO Den Haag

RKC Waalwijk 0-2 AZ Alkmaar

Utrecht 3-1 PEC Zwolle

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