Ajax will be confident of dumping Heerenveen out the Eredivisie's Champions League play-offs for the second year on the trot after winning 2-1 in the away leg of their first-round tie.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring just after the hour mark before Gerald Sibon pulled Heerenveen level 10 minutes later.

But John Heitinga pounced in the 76th minute to leave Ajax on the brink of qualifying for the play-off final.

Ajax, who ended Heerenveen's European dream last year with a 4-2 aggregate win, will hope to complete the job in the second leg at the Amsterdam ArenA on Monday.

Brett Holman's early goal was enough to give NEC Nijmegen a 1-0 victory in the first leg of their UEFA Cup play-off clash at 10-man Roda JC.

The Kerkrade outfit's cause was not helped by the dismissal of defender Ger Senden eight minutes into the second half.

The result leaves Raymond Atteveld's troops with it all to do in Sunday's second leg.

FC Groningen overturned a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 in a bad-tempered UEFA Cup play-off first-leg clash at FC Utrecht that saw both sides finish with 10 men.

The home side were in command at the break thanks to goals from Gregory Schaken and Robin Nelisse but Goran Lovre pulled one back for Groningen soon after the restart.

Lovre and Utrecht's Francis Dickoh then saw red before Yevgeni Levchenko equalised in the last minute to put Groningen in the driving seat ahead of Sunday's second leg.

Roda JC face NEC in the second UEFA Cup play-off first leg on Thursday night.

ADO Den Haag got one over on future coach Andre Wetzel by posting a 1-0 win at home to VVV Venlo in the first leg of their Eredivisie relegation/promotion second round play-off.

Wesley Verhoek's first-minute goal was enough for the home side to take the upper hand in the tie.

If second-tier ADO protect their lead in return leg in Venlo on Sunday, Wetzel will be assured of another top-flight season when he takes charge at Den Haag Stadion at the end of the campaign.

Robert Maaskant is another coach set to leave for pastures new when he joins NAC Breda at the end of the season, but he will nevertheless have been delighted as his current charges, MVV Maastricht, beat RKC Waalwijk 1-0 in their first-leg meeting.

Sjoerd Winkens scored the only goal of the game for MVV in the 78th minute.

Eredivisie outfit De Graafschap came away from their match at Helmond Sport with a 3-2 win thanks to Lasse Schone's fine hat-trick.

Schone struck either side of Joost Habraken's 42nd minute equaliser and then notched his third after 64 minutes. Ilja van Leerdam's scored an 85th consolation for Helmond to leave the tie tantalising poised ahead of Sunday's second leg.

The day's final fixture, which was temporarily halted due to adverse weather, finished with a 1-0 win for Den Bosch at FC Zwolle courtesy of Laurens Ten Heuvel's 89th-minute strike.