Four of five Dutch teams advance to group phase

Thursday was a good day for Dutch football, as four of five teams from that country advanced to the group stage of the inaugural UEFA Europe League.

PSV beat Bnei Yehuda 1-0 in Israel last week, and earned the same result in the return leg played in Eindhoven. The only goal of the match came from Belgian Timmy Simons, who converted a penalty in the 25th minute.

SC Heerenveen arguably delivered the most surprising result, holding Greek side PAOK to a goalless draw to advance on away goals. The first leg, played in Greece last week, ended 1-1.

FC Twente played out a scoreless draw at Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Steve McClaren’s side has won the opening leg 3-1, due to which there was never much pressure on the Enschede outfit in the second leg game.

Ajax had nothing to fear after last week’s 5-0 win over Slovan Bratislava, and Martin Jol’s men added a 1-2 win in the Slovakian capital. Siem de Jong and Kennede scored for the Dutch, while Jakub Sylvestr netted the only home game.

The only Dutch side to be eliminated in this round is NAC Breda losing 9-2 on aggregate to Villarreal. Cazorla, Rossi (2), Marcos Senna, Pereira and Kiko scored for Villarreal in Thursday’s 6-1 win. The only NAC goal came from Edwin de Graaf.