AZ suffered an extremely painful defeat on Sunday. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the Alkmaarders on a visit to RKC Waalwijk, until Hobie Verhulst horribly blundered at a 0-1 lead. For a long time, Pascal Jansen’s team seemed to leave Brabant with a point, but RKC turned it around completely in the final phase: 3-1. Substitute Zakaria Bakkali was good for two hits. His second, however, was again due to a blunder by Verhulst.
Dani de Wit was missing from AZ, who was suspended because of his red card against FC Volendam (2-1 win). His place on the diaphragm was taken by Riechedly Bazoer. For the rest, Pascal Jansen chose the familiar names. RKC lost 3-0 at FC Twente last weekend, but Joseph Oosting only victimized Patrick Vroegh by Yassin Oukili.
Hobie Verhulst can’t believe it himself either… ??#rkcaz pic.twitter.com/92jLO47Diz
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) Nov 6, 2022
De Wit saw among the traveling fans how his team took the lead after ten minutes. Yukinara Sugawara handed the ball from the right on a silver platter to Jesper Karlsson, for whom tapping in was a breeze. There seemed to be no problem for the Alkmaarders, until ‘Verhulst’s moment’. Bel Hassani shot straight for the closing post, which, however, let the leather slip clumsily through his hands: 1-1.
Verhulst cried out in frustration and then saw his team lose it completely. RKC became the better, although it was far from converting the dominance into great opportunities. It could have gone either way in the second half. The turning point of the match? The 77th minute. Bakkali then came on the field at RKC for center defender Dario van den Buijs. The teams missed a few chances back and forth, before the Belgian plunged AZ into mourning with a double blow. Verhulst made a mistake again on his last goal.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PSV | 13 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 30 |
| 2 | Ajax | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 27 | 28 |
| 3 | Feyenoord | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 27 |
| 4 | FC Twente | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 26 |
| 5 | AZ | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 26 |
| 6 | Sparta Rotterdam | 13 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 23 |
| 7 | FC Utrecht | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | -2 | 21 |
| 8 | sc Heerenveen | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 20 |
| 9 | RKC Waalwijk | 13 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 17 |
| 10 | NEC | 13 | 2 | 8 | 3 | -2 | 14 |
| 11 | Go Ahead Eagles | 13 | 3 | 5 | 5 | -3 | 14 |
| 12 | Excelsior | 13 | 4 | 1 | 8 | -17 | 13 |
| 13 | Fortuna Sittard | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | -8 | 12 |
| 14 | Fc Groningen | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | -11 | 12 |
| 15 | Vitesse | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | -13 | 11 |
| 16 | FC Emmen | 13 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -14 | 10 |
| 17 | SC Cambuur | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | -11 | 8 |
| 18 | FC Volendam | 13 | 1 | 3 | 9 | -22 | 6 |