Second-placed Twente and third-ranked Ajax both scored easy victories on Sunday to keep pressure on Dutch premier league leaders AZ Alkmaar. Twente, which suffered an early exit from the UEFA Cup 32-round Thursday, dominated the match against visiting Den Haag, prevailing 1-0.

After teammates squandered several chances to score, Swiss international Blaise N'Kufo headed into the top corner from Ronnie Stam's cross to put the home side in front.

At Utrecht, Ajax, which marched into the last 16 of the UEFA Cup on Thursday, proved too strong for the hosts and won 2-0.

At the 9th minute, Dutch international Gregory Van Der Wiel, 21,opened the scoring after finding the top left corner with a shot from the center of the area following Miralem Sulejmani's pass.

At the 63rd minute, 21-year-old Belgian international Jan Vertonghen headed into the top right corner, building on a free-kick by Rob Wielaert.

With their latest victories, Twente, with 54 points out of 25 matches, closed their gap with AZ to 9 points, and Ajax cut their deficit with AZ to 12 points.

With 9 matches remaining, Twente and Ajax both have slim realistic chances of overtaking AZ to win the league title.