Ajax 3 PSV 0: Eredivisie title race gets new lease of life

Ajax breathed new life into their Eredivisie title ambitions by defeating league leaders PSV 3-0 at the Amsterdam ArenA on Sunday.

A brilliant second-half display saw Ajax move seven points back from Phillip Cocu’s side, whose 12-match unbeaten run came to an end after their advantage at the summit was cut to five points by AZ Alkmaar’s 5-0 victory over Heracles on Saturday.

With snow forcing the postponement of Utrecht’s clash with Feyenoord and Vitesse’s trip to Sparta Rotterdam, the match in Amsterdam took place under a closed roof and with a delayed kick-off time due to the adverse conditions.

PSV lost Jurgen Locadia to a hamstring injury after just 12 minutes and they came under sustained pressure for prolonged periods in a fiery first half, Kasper Dolberg heading over the hosts’ best opportunity shortly before half-time.

Ajax finally broke through when David Neres volleyed a half-cleared corner into the bottom-left corner in the 61st minute, and Lasse Schone quickly doubled their advantage with a fierce drive from 18 yards.

16 – David Neres scored 9 goals and assisted 7 more in 15 Eredivisie starts for @AFCAjax. Samba.

— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) December 10, 2017

Derrick Luckassen forced Andre Onana into his first save of the match but Marcel Keizer’s side were out of sight when Donny van de Beek snuck a pass from Neres in off the post.

Marco van Ginkel rattled the crossbar with a brilliant free-kick as the clock ran down, but PSV were left to rue missing out on a chance to move 13 points ahead of their fierce rivals.