PSV beat Ajax in Amsterdam to narrow gap

PSV Eindhoven defeated rivals Ajax Amsterdam 2-1, thanks to two goals by Uruguayan forward Gaston Pereiro.

With captain Luuk de Jong out with an ankle injury and Jetro Willems recovering from a knee injury PSV coach Phillip Cocu could not line-up his best team and, in addition, on Sunday Belgian forward Maxime Lestienne withdrew due to family circumstances, reports Xinhua.

Despite the absentees PSV proved stronger than Ajax at the Amsterdam Arena, with Mexican midfielder Andres Guardado having recovered earlier than expected from an ankle injury.

Pereiro, the replacement for Lestienne, opened the scoring in the 7th minute after having dribbled through the Ajax defence.

Ajax answered within three minutes with Amin Younes curling in the equalizer passed his opponent Santiago Arias and goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet. In the reminder of the match PSV had opportunities to take the lead again, but it took until the 79th minute to get another goal.

Once again it was Pereiro and once again he finished a solo effort. This time he curled the ball into the net to earn the reigning champions their second consecutive league victory at Ajax.

Also on Sunday Vitesse crushed FC Groningen 5-0 and Feyenoord beat De Graafschap 2-1 in Doetinchem. After a bad first half and an own goal by Feyenoord defender Sven van Beek the Rotterdam based side bounced back in the second half through goals by Michiel Kramer and Eljero Elia.

On Saturday, PEC Zwolle beat Willem 1-0 in Tilburg and on Friday Heracles Almelo defeated sc Heerenveen 2-0 at home.

The top five of the Dutch table now are within two points of each other. Ajax and Feyenoord are on 19 points from eight matches, followed by Heracles (18), PSV (17) and PEC Zwolle (17).