Willem II shocked AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie on Saturday, while Roda JC and Heracles Almelo both won.
Willem II, Roda JC and Heracles Almelo win, VVV Venlo held
Rock bottom Willem II shocked high-flying AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie on Saturday, while Roda JC and Heracles Almelo also won and VVV Venlo and Heerenveen drew.
Andreas Lasnik inspired
Willem II to only their third top flight victory of the season as they beat fourth-placed
AZ Alkmaar 2-1 to keep alive their hopes of beating the drop.
Lasnik opened the scoring with a brilliant free-kick and, after Kolbeinn Sigthorsson had brought the visitors level, set up the winner for Evgeniy Levchenko.
AZ ended the game with 10 men following the 87th minute sending-off of Hector Moreno.
The win kept Willem II in with a chance of moving off the bottom of the standings with just two games to go, but defeat was a blow to AZ's hopes of Europa League qualification.
Second-from-bottom
VVV Venlo sit three points above Willem II after a 2-2 home draw with
Heerenveen.
The hosts looked to have sealed a crucial win after Ruud Boymans' late brace (85, 89) but Bas Dost netted a last-gasp equaliser following Mika Vyrynen's opener on the stroke of half time.
Thrashed
Roda JC thrashed
NAC Breda 5-1 to keep alive their push for fourth place.
Taking advantage of AZ's defeat, fifth-placed Roda closed the gap on their rivals to two points as they brushed NAC aside.
Two goals in the space of four minutes from Jimmy Hempte and Morten Skoubo had them 2-0 up inside the opening 20 minutes, and it was 3-0 when Mads Junker scored before the half-hour mark.
Joonas Kolkka got a goal back for the visitors before half-time, but any notion of a fightback was ended early in the second half as Junker scored a penalty and Sebastian Svard added a fifth goal.
Eredivisie strugglers
De Graafschap saw their winless run extended to five matches with a 2-0 defeat at mid-table
Heracles Almelo.
Everton da Silva opened the scoring for Heracles before the interval with Willy Overtoom adding a second in the final minute.
De Graafschap sit six points above the bottom three with two matches remaining, but would see that halved if Excelsior win their game in hand on Sunday.
