Feyenoord were looking to bounce back from last week's painful 1-1 home draw against Fortuna Sittard, which allowed Ajax to close the gap to just one point. Away at Heerenveen, there were no surprises from Giovanni van Bronckhorst, whose side also lost 3-0 at home to Inter on Tuesday.
It was a dire opening phase in Heerenveen, where Anis Hadj Moussa eventually opened the scoring out of the blue and did so in typical Hadj Moussa fashion: curling the ball right into the far corner to leave Bernt Klaverboer hopeless.
The home fans were left stunned when Feyenoord were given a controversial penalty for handball after Vasilios Zagaritis got the ball on his supporting arm mid-tackle. Nacho Ferri stepped up and converted from the spot to double Feyenoord's lead after 31 minutes.
Heerenveen pushed to cut into Feyenoord's lead and scored their first of the afternoon right before half-time, when Maas Willemsen fired home after a corner.
The hosts came storming out of the dressing room and scored a rapid equaliser via Levi Smans, whose shot was deflected past Tjark Ernst in the 47th minute.
It went from bad to worse for the league leaders when Ringo Meerveld, who replaced Maxence Rivera at half-time, earned Heerenveen their first lead of the day after an hour's play - Jacob Trenskow and Smans combined in the box, with the former laying it back to a wide-open Meerveld for a tap-in.
It was a goal fest in Friesland, and substitute Sem Steijn helped Feyenoord back alongside the hosts less than ten minutes after Heerenveen took the lead, prodding home a lay-off from Ferri after an initial cross led to nothing.
Heerenveen weren't done fighting and took another shock lead late in the game, when Meerveld was free to dribble through the Rotterdam side's backline and beat a questionably acting Ernst with a placed shot in the bottom corner.
Another comeback wasn't to be for Feyenoord, who conceded a fifth on the cusp of full-time when Meerveld completed his second-half hat-trick by flicking a rebound past Ernst.
After 11 unbeaten rounds, Feyenoord conceded their first league defeat of the season at the hands of sc Heerenveen. With all the direct rivals set to play later on Sunday, the loss could see Feyenoord drop to third in the table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ringo Meerveld (sc Heerenveen)
Catch up on the full match statistics on Flashscore
Netherlands:Eredivisie - Round 12|Heerenveen – Feyenoord
