AZ take advantage after Twente and PSV lose
Reuters - Sunday 11 March 2012, 18:05
AZ Alkmaar moved three
points clear at the top of the Dutch championship on Sunday
after title rivals Twente Enschede and PSV Eindhoven lost.
Second-half goals by Rasmus Elm and Erik Falkenburg earned
AZ a 2-0 win at Graafschap Doetinchem. Elm scored with an
in-swinging corner four minutes after the interval and
Falkenburg sealed the points in stoppage-time.
Alkmaar have 52 points after 29 matches, three ahead of
in-form Ajax Amsterdam who beat RKC Waalwijk 3-0 to leapfrog
Twente, beaten 3-1 at NEC Nijmegen, and PSV, who also lost 3-1
at NAC Breda.
Jan Vertonghen put Ajax ahead after 26 minutes when he
scored at the near post, while Siem de Jong and Lorenzo Ebicilio
struck in the second half to secure a fifth straight for the
defending champions.
Lasse Schone converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time
to put Nijmegen ahead against Twente and second half goals by
Kevin Conboy and Genero Zeefuik sealed victory before Glynor
Plet pulled one back.
Steve McClaren's Twente are third on 48 points with one game
in hand on the top two.
PSV, also on 48, ended a bad week by slipping to defeat at
Breda, three days after losing 4-2 to Valencia in the Europa
League.
Georginio Wijnaldum opened the scoring for PSV after five
minutes but Santi Kolk and Anthony Lurling quickly replied.
PSV defender Stanislav Manolev was sent off just before
half-time and the hosts, who added a third goal through Kolk,
were also reduced to 10 men just past the hour when Robert
Schilder was dismissed.