Feyenoord finish second in Dutch league
Reuters - Sunday 06 May 2012, 14:54
By Theo Ruizenaar
HEERENVEEN, Netherlands, May 6 (Reuters) - Feyenoord
finished second behind Dutch champions Ajax Amsterdam when they
beat Heerenveen 3-2 on the final matchday of the league on
Sunday.
Bas Dost opened the scoring for Heerenveen after 56 minutes
from close range with his 32nd goal of the season but Otman
Bakkal equalised four minutes later.
Sekou Cisse and Elvis Manu struck within two minutes of each
other for Feyenoord before Rajiv van la Parra pulled one back
for Heerenveen.
Ajax, 3-1 winners at Vitesse Arnhem, finish with 76 points,
six ahead of Feyenoord who reached the Champions League
qualification phase after finishing 10th last season.
Cupwinners PSV Eindhoven remain third with 69 points despite
a 3-1 win over bottom side Excelsior Rotterdam who were
relegated.
Dries Mertens and Jeremain Lens gave PSV a 2-0 lead in the
first half but early after the interval Luigi Bruins pulled one
back from the penalty spot before Georginio Wijnaldum settled
the match.
AZ Alkmaar, who have been on top for the biggest part of the
season, had Erik Falkenburg on target after 26 minutes to seal a
1-0 win over Groningen and finish fourth with 65 points to
qualify for the Europa League.
Steve McClaren's Twente suffered a third straight defeat,
losing 4-2 at VVV Venlo, and will go into the Europa League
play-off with Vitesse, NEC Nijmegen and RKC Waalwijk.
(Editing by Clare Fallon; clare.fallon@thomsonreuters.com; +44
20 7542 7933; Reuters Messaging:
clare.fallon.reuters.com@reuters.net)