Sunday 7 May 2017 22:29, UK
The Eredivisie title race was thrown wide open with just one round to go after leaders Feyenoord crashed to a heavy defeat at Excelsior and Ajax took full advantage.
Feyenoord held a four-point lead going into the penultimate round of games as they chased a first title since 1999 but suffered a major blow to their ambitions after going down to a 3-0 defeat at Excelsior.
Ajax grabbed the opportunity to close the gap to just a point as they coasted to a 4-0 win over already-relegated Go Ahead Eagles.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Feyenoord were undone by three goals in nine second-half minutes. Excelsior opened the scoring after 56 minutes when Fredy played in Nigel Hasselbaink and he made no mistake in firing the ball past Brad Jones to open the scoring.
Just three minutes later it was 2-0 when Stanley Elbers turned the ball home from close range after Fredy's cross from the left deflected into this path. Ryan Koolwijk then put the icing on the cake for the hosts in the 65th minute, curling home a super free-kick from 25 yards out.
Justin Kluivert fired Ajax ahead from just outside the box after a corner was only partially cleared after 24 minutes before they doubled their advantage through Kasper Dolberg when he finished coolly after David Neres had carved open the Eagles defence and slipped him in.
Three minutes after the break Frankie de Jong headed home Nick Viergever's cross and victory was wrapped up by Mateo Cassierra before the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Marcel Ritzmaier was dismissed.
PSV Eindhoven will have to settle for third after they could only draw 1-1 at Groningen, Sam Lammers striking after 59 minutes following Mimoun Mahi's opener for the hosts. Sparta Rotterdam and NEC both enhanced their survival hopes with victories.
Martin Pusic gave Sparta a 1-0 win over Twente and goals from Julian von Haacke and Taiwo Awoniyi earned NEC a 2-1 victory against AZ.
That leaves both clubs on 31 points, two adrift of Roda JC, who hold the last position of safety after they edged to a 1-0 win over Willem II through a last-minute goal from Abdul Ajagun.
Reuven Niemeijer bagged a brace as Heracles boosted their Europa League play-off qualification hopes with a 4-0 win over ADO Den Haag, while Utrecht beat Vitesse 1-0 courtesy of Willem Janssen's stoppage-time goal.
Danny Holla and Queensy Menig were on target to earn PEC Zwolle a 2-1 victory over Heerenveen.
