Rotterdam, Netherlands (My Sportsbook) - AZ Alkmaar moved nine points clear at the top of the Eredivisie table on Sunday as Moussa Dembele and Mounir El Hamdaoui scored second-half goals in a 2-0 AZ win over Sparta.

Heerenveen's 1-0 win over Ajax on Saturday put AZ in position to grab a nine- point cushion, and they nearly took the lead 16 minutes into the game when El Hamdaoui smashed a shot over the net from close range.

However, it was Sparta who enjoyed the better of the play in the opening half with Erik Falkenburg forcing a good save from goalkeeper Sergio Romero, and Yuri Rose going close with a header from the resulting corner kick.

The hosts started well in the second half as well with Rose once again looking dangerous, but AZ slowly took over the game and went in front in the 65th minute.

Maarten Martens provided the ball that set Dembele free and he took care of the finish by slotting past goalkeeper Cor Varkevisser to make it 1-0.

Rose missed another good chance in front of goal that would have leveled the match, but El Hamdaoui put the result away five minutes from the end with his league-leading 16th goal.

The striker cut into the box from the left and fired a low shot that found the corner to kill the game off.

PSV Eindhoven picked up three valuable points as the defending champions moved into fifth place with a 3-0 win over Graafschap as Ibrahim Afelley scored twice, Twente missed out on a chance to take over second place as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Utrecht, while Feyenoord's struggles continued on Sunday as they remain in the bottom half of the table after losing 1-0 at NEC on Milano Koenders' goal in the 90th minute.