Eredivisie matchday 11: Twente win 9–0 at Excelsior, Feyenoord held, Ajax beat AZ

Twente won 9–0 at Excelsior on Sunday, Wout Weghorst scoring four, and with Feyenoord held 1–1 at home by Fortuna Sittard on Saturday, the top four are now within two points. Feyenoord, still the only unbeaten side, lead on 25; Ajax beat AZ 1–0 and are a point behind, and PSV, 7–0 winners over Willem II, and Twente are level on 23. Matchday 11 brought 36 goals in nine matches: six home wins, two away wins and one draw.

Saturday

Feyenoord 1–1 Fortuna Sittard opened with Luciano Valente's goal on 59, from Anis Hadj Moussa's pass. Shiloh 't Zand equalised on 86 from Sven Simons's pass, and a Feyenoord goal by Gjivai Zechiel was ruled out after a VAR check on 82. Feyenoord had 69 per cent of the ball and six shots on target. 't Zand is on loan from Feyenoord, NOS notes, and it was the third time this season they have dropped points at home.

Heerenveen 1–0 NEC was settled by Dylan Vente on 66, from Levi Smans's pass. NEC had 62 per cent of the ball and 21 shots; Heerenveen had eight. NEC have drawn five and won two of their eleven.

PSV 7–0 Willem II was 2–0 at half-time: Mauro Júnior scored on 20 and Guus Til, from Armando Obispo's pass, on 44, his seventh league goal. Sven Mijnans, from Sergiño Dest's pass, scored on 50 and set up Ruben van Bommel on 53; Ricardo Pepi, from Esmir Bajraktarević's pass, scored on 73 and set up Kodai Sano on 77, and Shuryjano Cornecion completed the scoring on 81. PSV had nine shots on target; Willem II had four shots in all. Cornecion, 18, scored his first goal in his fourth first-team match, NOS reports, on the night Jurgen Streppel returned to the Willem II bench as John Stegeman's successor.

Ajax 1–0 AZ was decided on 9, when Tolu Arokodare scored from Abdellah Ouazane's pass. Ajax had two shots on target all evening; AZ had five, and eight corners to one, and the Ajax goalkeeper made five saves. According to NOS, Ajax had gone eleven matches in a row without beating AZ, and Julian Brandt went off injured.

Cambuur 4–0 GO Ahead Eagles was 3–0 at half-time. Ismaël Baouf scored on 7 from Rafik El Arguioui's pass, Jason Ceka on 15 from Devid Eugene Bouah's and Billy van Duijl on 41 from Ilyes Hamache's, and El Arguioui added the fourth on 80 from Sami Bouhoudane's. Cambuur had seven shots on target; GO Ahead Eagles had one. NOS reports that the match was halted for fireworks thrown from the Go Ahead Eagles away section, restarted after about half an hour and then stopped for good when more were thrown, and that both clubs accepted the 4–0 as the final result; Go Ahead Eagles' director, Jan Willem van Dop, said he was ashamed.

Sunday

PEC Zwolle 1–0 ADO Den Haag was won by Dylan Mbayo's goal on 45, from Younes Namli's pass. An ADO Den Haag goal by Evan Rottier was ruled out after a VAR check on 40. PEC Zwolle had 34 per cent of the ball but 24 shots.

Excelsior 0–9 Twente was played eleven against ten from the 5th minute, when Excelsior's Nesto Groen was sent off for catching Twente's Robin Pröpper with a high boot; Voetbal International reports that no Excelsior player had been sent off so early in an Eredivisie match. Weghorst scored on 12, 32 and 33, all three from Sondre Holmlund Orjasaeter's passes; Thomas Van den Belt scored on 39, after a goal of his had been ruled out after a VAR check on 27, and Daan Rots, from Orjasaeter, on 45+1. Jordy Bawuah, also from Orjasaeter, made it 6–0 on 49; Weghorst converted a penalty on 62 and Ramiz Zerrouki another on 71, and Rots scored again on 82 from Van den Belt's pass. Twente had 27 shots, 15 on target, and 80 per cent of the ball; Excelsior did not have a shot. Orjasaeter set up five of the nine; Voetbal International reports that no player this century had given five assists in a Dutch top-flight match, and that Weghorst, with his first Eredivisie hat-trick on the way to four, was the first to score four in a match for Twente since Marc Janko in 2011. According to NOS, it was Twente's biggest Eredivisie win and Excelsior's heaviest Eredivisie defeat.

Telstar 4–2 Utrecht was 3–1 at half-time. Tyrone Owusu scored on 8 and Abdelnour Soualhia on 25 from Ar'jany Martha's pass; Ángel Alarcón pulled one back for Utrecht on 42 from Marius Broholm's, and Nökkvi Þeyr Þórisson, from Owusu, restored the two-goal lead on 44. Yoann Cathline, from Joris van Overeem's pass, scored on 46, but Martha, from Þórisson's, made it 4–2 on 59. Telstar had 34 per cent of the ball and seven shots on target.

Groningen 2–3 Sparta Rotterdam began with Jacob Ondrejka's goal in the 1st minute, from Brynjólfur Darri Willumsson's pass. Cedric Hatenboer, from Marvin Young's pass, equalised on 15 and Milan Zonneveld put Sparta Rotterdam ahead on 25; Thom van Bergen, from Hans Hateboer's, made it 2–2 on 29. Andrej Kostić won it on 85. Groningen had 20 shots, ten on target, and the Sparta goalkeeper made eight saves.

The table after matchday 11

#	Team	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Feyenoord	11	7	4	0	+21	25
2	Ajax	11	7	3	1	+17	24
3	PSV Eindhoven	11	7	2	2	+22	23
4	Twente	11	7	2	2	+18	23
5	AZ Alkmaar	11	6	2	3	+7	20
6	Fortuna Sittard	11	5	4	2	0	19
7	Heerenveen	11	5	3	3	+6	18
8	Groningen	11	4	3	4	+2	15
9	Cambuur	11	4	3	4	+1	15
10	GO Ahead Eagles	11	3	5	3	−4	14
11	Sparta Rotterdam	11	3	3	5	−6	12
12	Utrecht	11	3	3	5	−12	12
13	NEC Nijmegen	11	2	5	4	−2	11
14	PEC Zwolle	11	3	2	6	−11	11
15	Excelsior	11	3	2	6	−12	11
16	Telstar	11	2	3	6	−7	9
17	ADO Den Haag	11	1	3	7	−11	6
18	Willem II	11	0	2	9	−29	2

Feyenoord lead on 25, a point ahead of Ajax and two ahead of PSV and Twente, who are separated by goal difference, +22 to +18; AZ have fallen five behind. The points race shows how the gap has closed: Feyenoord were six clear of Twente after matchday 9 and are two clear now, having taken two points from their last two matches while the other three took six, four and six. At the bottom, Willem II are four points behind ADO Den Haag and still without a win.

Numbers to know

• Twente's nine goals came from 27 shots; Excelsior had none.
• PSV have scored 35 goals, the most; Twente have conceded ten, the fewest.
• Willem II have conceded 39 goals in eleven matches and have no win.
• Sixteen of the round's 36 goals came in two matches, PSV's and Twente's.
• Three goals were ruled out after VAR checks.

Next up

Matchday 12 opens on Friday 6 November with Willem II v PEC Zwolle at 19:00 UTC. On Saturday 7 November, Fortuna Sittard host Telstar at 15:30 UTC, ADO Den Haag v Sparta Rotterdam follows at 17:45 UTC and Excelsior v GO Ahead Eagles at 20:00 UTC. On Sunday 8 November, Heerenveen v Feyenoord kicks off at 11:15 UTC, Twente v Ajax at 13:30 UTC, Cambuur v PSV and AZ v Groningen at 15:45 UTC, and Utrecht v NEC closes the round at 19:00 UTC. The full round is on the Eredivisie page.

Sources for the context: NOS, NOS, NOS, NOS, NOS, Voetbal International, Voetbal International, Voetbal International.