Kolbeinn Sigthorsson opened the scoring just before half-time and Brett Holman doubled AZ's advantage just after the hour. Timothy Derijck gave the visitors a glimmer of hope midway through the second half but that was snuffed out five minutes from time when substitute Nick van der Velden restored the hosts' two-goal cushion. Elsewhere, Guram Kashia scored the winner for Vitesse Arnhem to dent FC Groningen's hopes of securing an automatic Europa League berth. Danny Holla had given Groningen the lead with 25 minutes remaining but Wilfried Bony scored with 18 minutes to go and Kashia netted 10 minutes later to secure a 2-1 home win. At the bottom, 16th-placed Excelsior claimed a crucial 2-1 away win over NAC Breda to keep alive their hopes of escaping the drop zone. Roland Bergkamp put the visitors one up with 20 minutes on the clock but it took just six minutes for Ali Boussaboun to draw NAC level. Both sides were desperate for the next goal but it was Guyon Fernandez who found the breakthrough two minutes into the second period. Mads Junker scored a hat-trick as Roda JC posted a 5-2 victory over a VVV-Venlo side already condemned to an Eredivisie relegation play-off at best. After Rob Wielaert's opener, Junker got the final touch on Morten Skoubo's goal-bound effort and added two headers before Pa-Modou Kah superbly completed the rout on the hour. VVV belatedly salvaged some pride in the last 10 minutes with goals from Michael Timisela and Michael Uchebo, but their miserable season continued with a heavy defeat in their first match under Dirk Jan Derksen.
