AZ Alkmaar began the defence of their Dutch Eredivisie title with a 3-2 defeat at Heracles Almelo.

Everton put the hosts in front in the eighth minute and second-half goals from Willy Overtoom and Mark-Jan Fledderus gave Heracles a comfortable advantage.

Two goals in the space of a minute from Graziano Pelle and Mounir El Hamdaoui, the league's leading scorer last year, gave AZ hope of a stunning comeback with 12 minutes left. But Gill Swerts and Pelle were sent off in the final two minutes to complete a miserable night.

Last year's runners-up FC Twente recorded a comfortable 2-0 win at Sparta Rotterdam.Blaise Nkufo opened the scoring in the 18th minute and Bryan Ruiz doubled Twente's tally shortly before the hour mark.

Willem II began their Eredivisie campaign in style, easing to a 3-1 victory over Vitesse Arnhem. It was Vitesse pushing for a Europa League play-off place last season, but Willem II were immediately in the ascendancy today, Christophe Gregoire putting them ahead after three minutes.

Said Boutahar doubled the lead after 28 minutes and, although Sinan Kaloglu pulled one back with 21 minutes to play, Arjan Swinkels struck in the dying seconds to seal the points for the hosts.The only disappointment for Willem II was a second-half red card for Gregoire.

Elsewhere, Ricky van Wolfswinkel's third minute goal was enough to give FC Utrecht a 1-0 win over newly-promoted RKC Waalwijk/