Heerenveen ahead again against Volendam – Van Hooijdonk made it two

HEE-VOL | 52′ Thick chance for Volendam

Twigt dribbles cleverly through the Heerenveen defense and shoots hard at goal. Mous managed to turn the ball away, but he tapped it towards the incoming Oristiano.

He comes up short to make it 2-2.

AZ-SPA | 90′ Sugawara hits the post

After a wonderful cross from Reijnders, Sugawara is able to shoot in. He does so hard, but not quite cleanly, causing the ball to hit the post.

AZ just isn’t having any luck either.

AZ-SPA | 84′ Odgaard hits the crossbar

Odgaard kicks the crossbar from close range! AZ gives everything in the closing stages to still force something, but chances are sparse.

This was a very big one though.

AZ-SPA | 64′ Still AZ is struggling

Even after halftime, AZ struggled with Sparta, which gained more and more space on the counter attack. Just moments ago Lauritsen hit the post with a blazing shot.

At AZ, Pavlidis has now joined them. Maybe the Greek striker can force something.

The golden AZ generation of 1980 is cozy together tonight. Below you can see goal scoring machine of yesteryear Kees Kist and Norwegian former midfielder Kristen Nygaard.

They will hope their club manages to come back later against Sparta, who are leading 1-0.

AZ-SPA | 45+4′ Goal Sparta!

Sparta takes the lead in Alkmaar. A clever cross from Saito is headed in by Lauritsen.

It was a nice goal, which didn’t come out of the blue either. Sparta had been playing nice soccer for about twenty minutes.

PSV-EXC | 38′ PSV sinks, chance Excelsior

In the opening phase PSV played fine, but since fifteen minutes it is significantly less. Excelsior comes through more often on the soccer and is threatening.

Via Driouech the ball just came to the feet of Goudmijn, who could have hit the target from close range. His shot flew high over, however.

VIT-GAE | 84′ Lidberg hits the crossbar

Almost the tying goal for Go Ahead. Lidberg gets free in the sixteen, then his directionally altered shot almost plops into the goal.

Eventually the ball hits the crossbar.

PSV-EXC | 26′ Chance Fábio Silva

He turns away beautifully, but Fábio Silva then shoots the ball straight into the hands of goalkeeper van Gassel. By the way, the match is now at a standstill for players participating in Ramadan.

The sun has set, so some quick food and drink is served.

VIT-GAE | 64′ Goal Vitesse!

Sankoh taps in the 2-0 from an extended corner. The goal had been coming for a while, as Go Ahead came out of the locker room lousy.

Vitesse – Go Ahead Eagles 2-0

PSV-EXC | 6′ Spicy injury Nieuwpoort

Sven Nieuwpoort just landed all wrong after an aerial duel. The defender is being treated on his hand.

A finger seemed to have dislocated, so playing football was out of the question. Serano Seymor is his replacement.

VIT-GAE | 50′ Good chance for Sankoh

There Sankoh suddenly took off. The quick striker hooded out a man in the sixteen, but then shot in rather softly.

A shame for Vitesse, because there was actually more in it.

VIT-GAE | 35′ Go Ahead is searching

At Go Ahead, construction is smooth: through controller Rommens, players like Adekanye, Willumsson and Férnandez are found quite easily.

But they then have to come up with something and they are not succeeding for the time being. That’s why the Deventers haven’t had a chance yet.

VIT-GAE | 25′ Home crowd is fully behind it

These are pretty rough times for Vitesse, both administratively and athletically. Yet the supporters are fully behind it today, with an atmosphere action before the match and lots of chanting in the first twenty minutes.

With that goal by Wittek, there was also something to cheer about.

VIT-GAE | 13′ Scare for De Lange

Go Ahead goalkeeper De Lange was in trouble for a while after a bad approach, but played his way out of it nicely. With a ball behind his foot he outsmarted the incoming Sankoh.

No real chances yet in the Gelredome.

VIT-GAE | 5′ Vitesse turn on

At least in the first few minutes of the match, Vitesse showed an understanding of the stakes. The Arnheimers put considerable pressure and already forced a chance with a header from Van Ginkel.

Go Ahead tapped out nicely under the pressure a couple of times though.

No Cocu along the line at Vitesse

Phillip Cocu will be missing from Vitesse tonight. The coach is struggling with appendicitis and had to undergo surgery. It is still unclear how long the 52-year-old Cocu will be missing.

The match against Go Ahead Eagles came too soon. This week assistant Chris van der Weerden took over training and he will also be along the line at the Gelredome tonight.

Earlier this season, Cocu stepped in at Vitesse as Thomas Letsch’s replacement. The German left in September for relegation-threatened VFL Bochum. Bochum has since climbed to 14th place in the Bundesliga.

Bayern past Freiburg thanks to De Ligt

Matthijs de Ligt helped Bayern Munich to three points in the Bundesliga match against Freiburg. Thanks to a seething shot from distance by the Oranje international, they won 1-0, keeping the southern Germans in the lead.

Visiting Freiburg, Bayern was the dominant side without creating too many chances. Nevertheless, it did push Freiburg very far back. A goal for Thomas Tuchel’s new coach hung in the air for a long time.

The goal finally fell only half an hour before time, when De Ligt got some space, set up the ball and lashed out devastatingly. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken, also an Orange international, was completely defenseless.

Pursuer Borussia Dortmund also won, 2-1 at home to Union Berlin. A Dutchman scored there as well: Donyell Malen made the 1-0