Hungry Huntelaar helps Heerenveen

Fine treble
Having scored twice in the second leg of the Dutch side's 5-2 aggregate victory against FC Baník Ostrava in the first round, Huntelaar celebrated his return to domestic action after a suspension with a terrific hat-trick against NAC Breda at the weekend.

Two-match suspension
Heerenveen have made an indifferent start to the Eredivisie season, and their cause was not helped when Huntelaar collected a two-match ban following a red card in their 5-1 defeat at Feyenoord on 18 September. That effectively meant a month on the sidelines for the 22-year-old.

Flying start
However, as he finally got back to league action on Saturday, Huntelaar proved the long break had not dampened his goalscoring ardour. Five minutes into the game at NAC, he headed in Uğur Yıldırım's cross, and then nodded his second after 23 minutes - shortly after his team had been reduced to ten men.

Splendid displays
Huntelaar had shown his class with strikes in the Netherlands' recent UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against the Czech Republic and F.Y.R. Macedonia, but he gave a further signal of his rising status in Dutch football with a tremendous effort to complete his treble against NAC.

Stylish finish
The tall forward controlled a long ball, gracefully turned defender Patrick Zwijnswijk, ghosted past Tony Vidmar and hit a terrific shot to give NAC goalkeeper Arno van Zwam no chance. It was his seventh Eredivisie goal in six matches.

World Cup potential
While he is delighted to see his protégé doing well ahead of their UEFA Cup tie, Heerenveen coach Gertjan Verbeek wants to see Huntelaar make the step up to the senior national team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. "If I were Marco van Basten, I would take him with me to Germany," he said.