Duo claim morale-boosting wins

AZ Alkmaar 2-2 Heracles Almelo

A bizarre ending denied AZ victory against Heracles and allowed PSV Eindhoven to move three points clear of Louis van Gaal's side. Tarik Sektioui put AZ ahead on 42 minutes after an assist from Shota Arveladze, who himself struck his 12th league goal of the season eleven minutes into the second half. But Heracles swiftly pulled one back through Denis Calincov and then in added time visiting goalkeeper Martin Pieckenhagen came up for a corner and headed the equaliser.

Coach Van Gaal said: "Heracles were lucky, AZ were unlucky. These thing can happen in football, but it is not nice to experience. We can blame ourselves for not finishing the game off." Barry Opdam (knee), Tim de Cler (hamstring), Demy de Zeeuw (groin), Pius Ikedia (hamstring), Juha Reini (achilles) are on the injury list while Henk Timmer, Joris Mathijsen, Ron Vlaar and Denny Landzaat have been selected in the Netherlands squad for the friendly against Italy at the Amsterdam ArenA on 12 November. Stijn Schaars is included in the party for the Netherlands' UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off against Slovakia.

Everton FC 1-0 Middlesbrough FC

Middlesbrough failed to build on good wins against Manchester United FC and Dnipro after falling to a single goal at Goodison Park on Sunday courtesy of James Beattie's 16th-minute header. The visitors came close to equalising in the final minute when Gaizka Mendieta's corner found Franck Queudrue but his header hit the crossbar. Manager Steve McClaren welcomed back Ugo Ehiogu after injury, although Gareth Southgate (groin), Ross Turnball, Ray Parlour, Stewart Downing (all knee), Anthony McMahon (shoulder) and Malcolm Christie (leg) remain sidelined.

"We controlled the game, dominated possession, but they got the goal, defended well and in numbers too," said McClaren. "We're disappointed with the result. We weren't ruthless and lacked creativity which is strange for us, especially after scoring seven goals this week. We felt we missed an opportunity in the first half after playing so well."

FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 2-2 FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Having lost both their first two games in Group D, Dnipro went close to what would have been a valuable victory at Kryvbas in the Ukrainian Premier League, but let slip a two-goal lead and ultimately had to be content with a single point. The visitors took the lead after just four minutes through midfielder Andriy Rusol, and Dmytro Mykhaylenko doubled the lead midway through the first half. However, caretaker coach Vadim Tischenko was powerless to prevent his side's lead evaporating in the second half, Vasil Gigiadze pulling a goal back before Magomed Adiev struck to earn the home side a point.

Dnipro have 16 points from 15 games and lie tenth in the league, ten points behind third-placed FC Volyn Lutsk. "We still struggle to get points," said Tischenko. "After a heavy defeat [away at Middlesbrough] it was difficult to tune the team for the domestic fixture. As a result we were bright from the start, but as the game wore on players lacked the strength to calmly finish the match."

PFC Litex Lovech 2-1 PFC Belastsa Petrich

Litex pulled off an impressive second-half comeback to defeat Belastsa Petrich on Sunday. The visitors went in front on the stroke of half-time through a Ventsislav Ivanov penalty and held out until 15 minutes from time, when Anton Kostadinov was sent off and Borislav Hazurov grabbed an equaliser for Litex.

Milivoje Novakovič completed the turnaround by scoring the winner four minutes later, although his afternoon went sour when he was dismissed in added time along with Belastsa's Yuri Ivanikov. "We were not fully motivated and to some extent we underestimated our opposition," said Litex coach Ljupko Petrović. "But the most important thing is the win."

Grasshopper-Club 2-0 FC Thun

Grasshoppers maintained their impressive home form with victory against UEFA Champions League participants Thun, to make it 16 league games unbeaten at the Hardturm and stay second in the Swiss Super League behind FC Basel 1893. Both goals came late on, although Grasshoppers had a scare when Thun defender Armand Deumi hit the post just before the hour. Ricardo Cabanas broke the deadlock after 77 minutes after being left unmarked to score a rare headed goal, before Alen Orman's error allowed Eduardo in to secure victory with four minutes remaining.

Coach Hanspeter Latour was delighted with the way his side bounced back after losing on UEFA Cup Matchday 2 at Litex, saying: "We showed a good reaction. If Deumi had scored the opening goal it would have been completely against the run of play." Gerardo Seoane, Leandro Fonseca and André Muff remain on the treatment table, where they are now joined by Moroccan midfielder Tariq Chihab who was forced off after only nine minutes of Thursday's defeat in Bulgaria.