The regular season of the Eredivisie is over. PSV finally decided the battle for second place in Eindhoven’s favor on the last day, sc Heerenveen plays in the play-offs for European football and Sparta Rotterdam and Cambuur ended their season with a big victory. These are the highlights of last Sunday!
The battle for second, third and even fourth place was exciting until the last minute. Due to Ajax’s defeat at FC Twente (3-1), AZ knew that it could rise to third place with a victory over PSV, so everything was done to beat the team from Eindhoven. Then, however, there was Xavi Simons. The star of the year at PSV had already scored from a tricky position after more than an hour and also effectively completed a counter in injury time, with which he ends up with nineteen league goals and is joint top scorer. In any case, his two goals in Alkmaar earn Simons a place in the Team of the Week.
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In Enschede, all eyes were on Ajax, which had to win to keep a chance of winning a ticket for the preliminary round of the Champions League. However, it was Václav Cerny, the attacker of FC Twente with a history in Amsterdam, who claimed the leading role. The Czech scored and delivered an assist, which was already the third time in a row in a home game. The last player from Twente to pull off that trick and score in three consecutive home games and prepare a goal was Blaise Nkufo in November 2006.
Elsewhere, Jens Toornstra was important for FC Utrecht, which settled with FC Emmen at home (3-2). The midfielder prepared a goal and it was the sixth time this season that Toornstra enabled a teammate to score. It was the first time since the 2017/18 season that Toornstra delivered so many assists in one season. The hero role of the weekend, however, was reserved for Kjell Scherpen. The Vitesse goalkeeper, in collaboration with his defense, ensured that Feyenoord did not come back from a 0-1 deficit for the first time this season. With art and flying, Scherpen, a big fan of Feyenoord as a child, managed to survive.
VZ’s Team of the Week: Kjell Scherpen (Vitesse); Dirk Abels (Sparta Rotterdam), Nicolas Isimat-Mirin (Vitesse), Pawel Bochniewicz (sc Heerenveen), Alex Bangura (SC Cambuur); Arno Verschueren (Sparta Rotterdam), Jamie Jacobs (SC Cambuur), Jens Toornstra (FC Utrecht); Václav Cerny (FC Twente), Tobias Lauritsen (Sparta Rotterdam), Xavi Simons (PSV).