The home side were ahead in only the third minute through Danijel Pranjic's penalty and were 3-0 up by half-time as Jacob Poulsen and Miralem Sulejmani found the target.

Michael Bradley put the result beyond doubt 10 minutes into the second half as AZ could find no reply to the hosts' attacking force.

Three FC Utrecht goals in the space of six first-half minutes proved enough to see off Roda JC 3-1.

Robin Nelisse bagged a quickfire double just after the half-hour mark, before Gregoor van Dijk's penalty made it three after 37 minutes.

Andres Oper struck after 53 minutes to provide some consolation to Roda, who also had Marcel Meeuwis sent off five minutes from time.

Heracles coach Gert Heerkes' honeymoon period came to an end as he saw his Eredivisie strugglers beaten 2-0 by in-form Vitesse Arnhem.

Vitesse captain Remco van der Schaaf opened the scoring just before half-time before Santi Kolk added a second on 53 minutes.

Willem II shot themselves in the foot as a Thomas Baelum own goal saw their hopes of survival falter with a 1-0 defeat at NAC Breda.

On Friday night, Feyenoord missed the chance to move level with leaders PSV Eindhoven after a humiliating 2-1 derby defeat to Excelsior.

The hosts had started the day at the bottom of the standings but stunned third-placed Feyenoord with goals from Michel van Guldener and Geert den Ouden in the opening 11 minutes.

Danny Buijs' strike 10 minutes from time finally got the visitors onto the scoresheet, but they were unable to find an equaliser and remain three points behind PSV.