Feyenoord heaped more misery on Ajax and boosted their own title claims with a 3-2 win.
Feyenoord heaped more misery on Ajax and boosted their own title claims with a 3-2 win at De Kuip.Danny Blind's Ajax have had a season to forget domestically, as they are well off the pace set by PSV Eindhoven, AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord.
A trip to Rotterdam afforded them the chance to eat into Feyenoord's advantage, but they found Erwin Koeman's men too strong.
Dutch international midfielder Nicky Hofs gave Feyenoord the lead on 21 minutes, but Ajax were level inside 60 seconds through Markus Rosenberg.
Ajax failed to take impetus from drawing level and Feyenoord tipped the game in their favour on the stroke of half time when Romeo Castelen put them ahead, slotting home at the near post from Dirk Kuyt's pass.
Ajax were still cursing their luck at the start of the second half and Kuyt pounced on 48 minutes to kill off their hopes.
Klaas Jan Huntelaar set up a tense finish when reducing the arrears on 89 minutes, but Feyenoord held on to claim the three points.
The win moves Feyenoord to within three points of PSV, while Ajax trail the leaders by a whopping 20 points.
A hat-trick from Lars Nilsson eased Heerenveen to victory over ADO Den Haag, with the three points boosting their European aspirations.
NEC Nijmegen boosted their Uefa Cup claims with a 3-1 win at RKC Waalwijk.
Robert Fuchs fired RKC ahead on 12 minutes, but NEC rallied and were level at the break thanks to a strike from Romano Denneboom.
NEC showed the greater quality after the interval and goals from Said Boutahar and Andrzej Niedzielan secured the three points.
A trio of late goals handed Twente a 3-0 home win over Utrecht.
Utrecht are chasing a Uefa Cup place and seemed set to secure a valuable away point, but goals from Kennedy Bakirciouglu, Sharbel Touma and Blaise N'Kufo dashed their hopes.
Click below for a match summary:
Feyenoord 3-2 Ajax
RKC Waalwijk 1-3 NEC Nijmegen
Twente Enschede 3-0 Utrecht
Heerenveen 3-0 ADO Den Haag
