PSV moved up to third with an emphatic 6-1 win over lowly Excelsior thanks to a hat-trick from Dries Mertens.
Nine-man Heerenveen draw; AZ and Den Haag win away
PSV moved up to third with an emphatic 6-1 win over lowly Excelsior thanks to a hat-trick from Dries Mertens.
Eindhoven gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about when they opened the scoring after half an hour thanks to a well-taken strike from Belgian winger Mertens.
Young striker Mitchell te Vrede equalised for
Excelsior ten minutes later but that only seemed to open the floodgates for a free-scoring PSV side who were in rampant mood.
Swedish striker Ola Toivonen scored two minutes after the interval and fired home again in the 49th minute as Mertens added his second and third.
The rout was completed by Jeremain Lens in the 72nd minute which sees Eindhoven third and three points behind table-toppers FC Twente.
They are on level points with fourth-placed
AZ Alkmaar, who won 3-0 on their travels to
Groningen.
Nick Viergever got the visitors off to a flyer in the first minute and it was not until the latter stages of the game that they added to their lead through Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Swede Rasmus Elm.
Marching orders
Heerenveen managed a 2-2 draw with
Feyenoord despite finishing the game with nine players after Ramon Zomer and Doke Schmidt were given their marching orders.
Zomer received his second yellow just after the hour and Schmidt was on the pitch for little more than two minutes after coming on as a substitute and then given a straight red.
As well as the sendings off, the game wasn't without its action when Bas Dost converted a spot-kick past Erwin Mulder.
Leroy Fer equalised for Feyenoord seven minutes later before Moroccan Oussama Assaidi put the away side in front again. However, Jerson Cabral made sure of a point for the hosts when he netted in the 57th minute.
At the bottom,
Ado Den Haag moved away from the danger zone with a comfortable 3-0 win over ten-man
De Graafschap.
Slovenia midfielder Aleksandar Radosavljevic broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time and further punished De Graafschap when their 34-year-old defender Purrel Frinkel was given a second booking.
Wesley Verhoek struck and then substitute Mike van Duinen made sure of the three points.
