Steven Berghuis returned to haunt former club AZ Alkmaar as his double and assist led Feyenoord to a 4-0 victory.
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The defending champions had a point to prove in Alkmaar after their shock defeat to NAC Breda last weekend and the loss at Napoli in the Champions League. Giovanni van Bronckhorst decided to start with a front three of Steven Berghuis, Sam Larsson and Jean-Paul Boetius and the tactic worked with Feyenoord racing to a 2-0 lead before 18 minutes.
On 11 minutes, Steven Berghuis smashed a shot off the underside of the bar and over the line, with Tonny Vilhena following it up to make sure the goal was given. Six minutes later, Larsson was allowed to travel with the ball and he hammered a shot past Marco Bizot from the edge of the box.
AZ remained a threat despite going two down, especially through Wout Weghorst, who had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside while also seeing an effort cleared off the line by Sofyan Amrabat. However, on 40 minutes, Stijn Wuytens gave the ball straight to Berghuis at the back and the winger’s deflected shot sneaked past Bizot to make it 3-0.
Just before the hour mark, Feyenoord added their fourth as Berghuis raced to the byline before picking out Vilhena at the back post for a tap-in.
Berghuis had two great chances to secure his hat-trick before the end, but had to settle for just the double in the end. At the other end, AZ handed a debut to Teun Koopmeiners before the end, and the 19-year-old came close to netting a consolation with a shot deflected just over the bar.
In the end it was a simple win for Feyenoord and they move up to 2nd while AZ drop to 7th.
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