Sat Oct 27 17:52:17 2007

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Heerenveen hammers Venlo; Feyenoord falters

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Venlo, Netherlands (Sports Network) - Heerenveen won its third consecutive game on Saturday behind two goals from Afonso Alves in the club's 4-0 victory over Venlo at De Koel.

League-leaders Feyenoord, meanwhile, had a three-game win streak snapped by Twente at Arke Stadion as the home side downed the Rotterdam club 2-0 with goals from Blaise Nkufo and Stein Huysegems.

The loss now opens the door for both PSV and Ajax, who will be in action on Sunday. PSV trails Feyenoord by just one point and can take over the top spot with a win at Sparta, while Ajax can pull level on points with Feyenoord if they beat Utrecht.

After a poor start to the season, Heerenveen is starting to find its form and has now moved into the top half of the table.

The game got off to a good start for the visitors as they went ahead after only three minutes through a header from Kristian Bak Nielsen off of a corner kick.

Alves then tallied his ninth goal of the season nine minutes later with a great finish from just inside the area.

The Heerenveen striker then put the game away in the 71st minute when he beat a defender and slotted home for his second goal of the game.

A header from Radoslaw Matusiak with four minutes to play then capped the scoring and finally ended a bad day for last-place Venlo.

Feyenoord, meanwhile, suffered its second defeat in league play this season as Blaise Nkufo scored 11 minutes in and Stein Huysegems scored an insurance tally after the restart.

Nkufo got his side on the board after he finished off a cross from Luke Wilkshire before Huysegems added a second goal and the Twente defense locked down Roy Makaay and the Feyenoord attack.

Roda downed Graafschap 1-0 on a penalty kick from Marcel Meeuwis while Excelsior and Heracles played to a 1-1 draw.