Round eight of the Dutch Eredivisie is underway, and the first cracks in the table are visible - time for a tour past the Dutch stadiums for a roundup of all the action.
NAC Breda - FC Groningen: 1-2
FC Groningen returned to winning ways by beating NAC Breda in the Rat Verlegh Stadion: 2-1.
After David van der Werff saw his opener get ruled out for offside, Tika de Jonge opened the scoring with a rocket from distance, firing the ball behind Danijel Bielica after 33 minutes.
Groningen top scorer Brynjolfur Willumsson returned in the second half and nearly fired in Groningen's second, but Bjelica saved the Icelandic striker's brilliant effort.
Thom van Bergen doubled Groningen's lead a couple of minutes later from an assist from goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen, who launched Taha and saw his teammate beat Bjelica at his near post with a powerful shot.
Mohamed Nassoh put NAC on the scoreboard in injury time, but his acrobatic effort only counted towards the statistics as FC Groningen took home their fifth win of the young season.
Fortuna Sittard - FC Volendam: 1-0
Fortuna Sittard extended their unbeaten streak in Eredivisie home games to eight, their longest since the 1997-98 season, with a 1-0 win over promoted outfit FC Volendam.
Midfielder Justin Lonwijk scored the game's only goal early, completing an impressive team move and a ditto assist from Dimitrios Limnios in the eighth minute.
An ineffective FC Volendam only managed to get remotely close twice, both times in the final fifteen minutes, but Nordin Bukala and Henk Veerman could not get their attempts between the posts, giving Fortuna Sittard their third consecutive home win.
sc Heerenveen - Excelsior: 2-1
An injury-time thunderbolt from centre-half Sam Kersten gave Heerenveen their second win in three games, lifting them up from the relegation zone with a 2-1 win over Excelsior.
Former Vitesse star Irakli Yegoian put the visitors in front after Heerenveen skipper Michael Brouwer committed a fatal mistake, losing the ball in his own box, giving Georgia international Yegoian the chance to score in front of an open goal.
Brouwer came close to redeeming himself later in the first half, but only managed to hit the post with a powerful effort from distance. Excelsior got the chance to double the lead before the half, were it not for Derensili Sanches Fernandes' effort to fly just past the top corner. Jakob Trenskow's effort met the same fate on the other end, giving Excelsior the lead at half-time.
Excelsior were largely the lesser team following the break and gave away a golden opportunity for Heerenveen to score the equaliser when Swedish midfielder Adam Carlen pulled Brouwer to the ground during a corner, giving Heerenveen a penalty. Dylan Vente calmly converted, putting Heerenveen alongside in the 89th minute.
The game looked to end in a draw before Sam Kersten delivered a memorable strike out of nowhere in the 94th minute, firing the ball with incredible power past Stijn van Gassel for only his second professional goal since 2016.
Sparta Rotterdam - Ajax: 3-3
Pressure starts to really mount on Ajax manager John Heitinga after his team only managed to scrape a draw from the away game at Sparta Rotterdam. Read all about Ajax's dramatic draw in our match report here.
PEC Zwolle - PSV: 0-4
PSV earned a more than comfortable away win in PEC Zwolle, who were outclassed 4-0 by the reigning champions. To read all about PSV's emphatic away win, check out our match report.
