THE HAGUE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- After their emphatic 6-2 win over arch-rivals Ajax last week, Feyenoord suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Excelsior on Sunday in the Dutch Eredivisie.
In the Rotterdam derby, Feyenoord opened the scoring through Robin van Persie from close range. The 35-year-old striker was Feyenoord's main man with two goals against Ajax and showed his class again against the club for which he played for in the youth academy.
However, Excelsior bounced back through goals by Ali Messaoud and Robin van der Meer. The latter earned his team the 2-1 victory with a fine volley.
On Saturday, Ajax had responded to last week's humiliating defeat with a 6-0 win against VVV-Venlo in Amsterdam. Hakim Ziyech scored from a free-kick in an unconvincing first half. In a better second part, Kasper Dolberg, Dusan Tadic, David Neres, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Donny van de Beek added the other goals.
PSV also walked away from Fortuna Sittard 5-0. After a mistake by Fortuna midfielder Andrija Balic Gaston Pereiro gave PSV an early lead, but that was the only highlight for the home-team in the first half.
After a second yellow card for Fortuna defender Clint Essers for handball, the job for PSV became easier and in the second half top scorer Luuk de Jong produced a hat-trick and 19-year-old substitute Cody Gakpo scored his first goal for the first team of PSV.
PSV now lead the Eredivisie with 55 points from 20 matches, five ahead of Ajax and 16 ahead of Feyenoord. AZ, which beat FC Emmen 5-0 on Saturday, are fourth with 34 points, five behind Feyenoord.
