AZ take top spot in the Eredivisie; PSV and Twente make it three out of three

AZ Alkmaar are the new leaders of the Eredivisie table. The Alkmaarders have won all three matches this season, along with PSV and FC Twente. AZ is top on goal difference.

AZ beat Vitesse in the Gelredome to take the top spot. Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis struck twice to give Pascal Jansen’s side the victory. His first was just a few minutes after halftime after some creative work by youngster Myron van Brederode.

The second and decisive goal had a lot of similarities with the first as it was created initially by Van Brederode, whose hard pass to Dani de Wit was miscontrolled by the midfielder, going straight into the path of Pavlidis who finished in the same far corner from a very similar angle.

It caps off an excellent week for AZ, who qualified for the UEFA Conference League on Thursday, having beat SK Brann on penalties.

FC Twente beat a very young FC Volendam side who are still without a point this season on Sunday to keep their 100% record. The Tukkers took the lead through Sem Steijn after 36 minutes. The midfielder’s shot was deflected, giving Mio Backhaus no chance in the Volendam goal.

The youngsters of Volendam fought bravely, but experienced striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel put the game to bed after 78 minutes after a one-two with Naci Unuvar put van Wolfswinkel one on one which he finished calmly by rolling the ball into the corner.

PSV picked up a routine victory on Saturday, RKC Waalwijk away. RKC are bottom of the table with zero points and a goal difference of -11. PSV’s first goal of the day was a Joey Veerman strike, the kind that we have come to expect from the midfielder from Volendam. Veteran striker Luuk de Jong laid the ball off to Veerman, who took his time before rolling it perfectly into the corner from the edge of the area, giving the keeper no chance.

The second goal was a gift for PSV as RKC got caught playing out from the back. De Jong got his second assist of the day as he played a simple pass to Noa Lang, who only had to put the ball into the empty goal.

De Jong got his goal after 63 minutes. Veerman crossed the ball into the box, which was eventually dropped to de Jong, who side-footed it into the corner. The cherry on top for PSV was Malik Tillman getting his first goal for the club with just a few minutes to go to finalize the scoring at 0-4.