Race to the finish

Van Hooijdonk sinks PSV, keeps Dutch title battle alive

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Feyenoord's Pierre van Hooijdonk scored a hat-trick against leader PSV Eindhoven on Sunday to keep the championship race alive and preserve his own club's slim title chances in a pulsating 3-1 home win.

PSV's lead at the top of the first division was cut to three points as second-placed Ajax Amsterdam crushed bottom club Graafschap Doetinchem 7-1. With two games left Ajax has moved on to 77 points from 32 games behind PSV who have 80 points.

Ajax's rout of Graafschap could be a factor since it pushed its goal difference up to 60 leaving it five behind PSV.

Feyenoord is third, a point adrift of Ajax, and had to win Sunday to preserve its outside chance of winning the title or at least overtaking the Amsterdam side in the chase for second place and a Champions League qualifying spot.

PSV hosts Utrecht next week, while Ajax and Feyenoord will travel to Twente Enschede and Willem II Tilburg respectively.

Sunday's match in Rotterdam was a fascinating encounter throughout the 90 minutes with plenty of needle as PSV captain Mark van Bommel kicked Feyenoord's Japan striker Shinji Ono but escaped punishment from referee Dick Jol.

Feyenoord opened the scoring on 34 minutes as Bonaventure Kalou was fouled in the box by Andre Ooijer and Van Hooijdonk converted the penalty.

Van Hooijdonk hat-trick

A minute into first-half injury time Van Hooijdonk doubled its lead as he crowned good combination play with Kalou by placing the ball past goalkeeper Yves Lenaerts from close range.

Eight minutes after the break Mateja Kezman pulled one back for PSV with his 34th goal of the season, but its hopes were dashed midway through the second half when Remco van der Schaaf fouled Anthony Lurling to concede another penalty.

Van Hooijdonk completed his hat-trick from the spot with his 28th goal this season to keep Feyenoord in the title race.

Lowly Graafschap surprised Ajax after just three minutes in the Amsterdam Arena when Hans van der Haar opened the scoring.

But the goal brought a crushing response from the home side and Rafael van Vaart equalised on 16 minutes before giving it the lead in first-half injury time with his second.

After the break Ajax totally dominated and grabbed five more goals through Wesley Sneijder (63), Tomas Galasek (67 penalty), Steven Pienaar (75), Maxwell (76) and Nordin Boukhari (89).

Graafschap remains the basement club with 20 points from 32 matches but, with just one team automatically relegated, can still catch Excelsior Rotterdam, which lost 2-1 at Willem II Tilburg on Saturday to stay on 22 points, and avoid the drop.

Groningen climbed away from the bottom three with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar, though they left it late as Glenn Salmon secured three precious points with a goal four minutes from time. Groningen moved up one place to 14th with 31 points.

Teams finishing 16th and 17th in the 18-team division go into a playoff to decide who is relegated with the bottom club. Zwolle and Vitesse Arnhem are the other two teams battling relegation and both lost 1-0 at home on Sunday.

 

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