The Dutch title race is becoming tighter and tighter. With only seven match rounds to go league leaders have only a one point gap left over FC Twente. Number three Ajax is trailing three points.
This week a public poll in the biggest Dutch football magazine Voetbal International pointed to Ajax as title favorites, despite them being ranked third with a three point deficit towards league leaders PSV. With only seven match rounds to go, FC Twente are second on the table, trailing PSV one point.
Of the title contenders Ajax will face the toughest opponent this weekend, when the play fifth ranked ADO Den Haag. Frank de Boers outfit got hammered 3-0 at Spartak Moscow in the Europa League on Thursday and will have a tough job regrouping for the title race. A big blow for Ajax was the injury for Maarten Stekelenburg, who broke his thumb on a training this week. The goalkeeper will probably be out for the rest of the season.
FC Twente and PSV both qualified for the Europa League quarter finals on Thursday. The title holders will visit Excelsior on Sunday and the league leaders will play host to FC Utrecht.
Vitesse coach Albert Ferrer will start with the same lineup he fielded against sc Heerenveen last week (1-1). “In general I was satisfied with the performance, although I think we should be a bit more aggressive sometimes.”
Vitesse will still miss striker Wilfried Bony another week. The 22-year-old Ivorian, who scored at his debut against De Graafschap a couple of weeks ago, is recovering from a muscle injury. “We don’t want to take risks with him”, Ferrer said.
The past two seasons Vitesse managed to beat AZ in Alkmaar. Both times the home team got 1-0 up, only to lose 2-1 in the end. In Arnhem Vitesse and AZ drew 1-1 this season.
FC Groningen are desperately waiting for the return of Tim Matavz. However the Slovenian striker is not ready yet to return in the league match against FC Groningen on Saturday. Groningen grabbed 1.69 points per match on average with Matavz playing and 1.26 points when he was sidelined.
Groningen took only one point from their last five matches and last week Pieter Huistra’s squad lost its fourth match in a row. The northerners only set two longer losing streaks in Eredivisie history, their longest being six in 1974.
NAC are also in trouble recently, having lost six of their last seven league matches. Meanwhile the club are in financial trouble as well. On Friday the club seemed to be saved from bankruptcy when sponsors decided to donate 1.7 million euro’s. The club is still short of 400.000 euro’s however.
VVV-Venlo will playt host in what could be a decisive relegation battle against Willem II on Saturday. If they lose the bottom ranked visitors will look at an eight point gap towards the second from bottom ranked home team.
VVV will be able to field Niels Fleuren en Youssef El Akchaoui, who recovered from illness and an ankle injury respectively. Willem II will miss the suspended Denis Halilovic and Veli Lampi is a question mark because of an ankle injury.
In Tilburg VVV-Venlo won 4-1 earlier this season. Willem II’s Arjan Swinkels was handed a much discussed red card, which was dropped by the disciplinary committee of the Dutch FA.
“If we don’t win, it’s really going to be tough”, Ron Jans said about the away match against Heracles Almelo on Saturday. The Heerenveen-coach still hopes to qualify for the play-offs for a Europa League ticket at the end of the regular season, but his team will have to turn things around to stay in contention. Heerenveen only took one point from its last four matches. Heerenveen never won an away match at Heracles in the Dutch top flight.
Heracles won its last three matches with a total goal difference of 14-3. On their own artificial turf Peter Bosz’ team is undefeated in its past seven home matches. Heracles lost only one of its twelve home matches this Eredivisie season.
In Friesland Heerenveen defeated Heracles 3-2 earlier this season. The home team got 2-0 up but the visitors managed to fight back and only surrendered when Birgir Maertens scored an own goal in the 94th minute.
NEC will miss Björn Vleminckx against De Graafschap on Saturday. The Eredivisie top scorer left the training with a groin injury this week. “We hope he’ll be back against Vitesse within two weeks” coach Wiljan Vloet said. NEC’s Niki Zimling is suspended.
NEC- De Graafschap is a battle for provincial dominancy. The home team is the highest ranked Eredivisie club from the three clubs of the Gelderland province (NEC, De Graafschap and Vitesse) at the moment.
“It’s good to try and be the best of our province”, said Vloet, who is trying to motivate his players with the regional battle. “De Graafschap is a powerful team and we’ll have to be careful.”
Ajax beat Willem II 3-1 last week, but the score does not reflect the difficulties Ajax had defeating the bottom team. On Thursday the Amsterdam club got hammered 3-0 at Spartak Moscow in the Europa League, but still the Dutch football public seems to believe in the first Dutch title for Ajax since 2004.
This week a public poll in the biggest Dutch football magazine Voetbal International pointed to Ajax as title favorites, despite them being ranked third with a three point deficit towards league leaders PSV. With only seven match rounds to go, FC Twente are second on the table, trailing PSV one point.
Ajax will face fifth ranked ADO Den Haag on Sunday. Frank de Boer chose to leave Mounir El Hamdaoui out of his squad because of their quarrel two weeks ago. However the coach said that he still hopes to get the striker back into the squad and they will be talking to each other on Monday.
The last time Roda JC managed to beat Feyenoord in Kerkrade was in 2001, when Regilio Vrede scored the only goal of the match. Feyenoord won its last six league matches at Roda. Last season Feyenoord won 4-2 at Roda with two goals by former Roda player Sekou Cissé.
At Feyenoord the match ended in a 1-1 draw earlier this season. Mads Junker put Roda 1-0 up in the 24th minute and Luc Castaignos saved a point for the home team in the 87th minute.
Roda JC’s technical director Martin van Geel will move to Feyenoord at the end of the season. The fifty-year-old Van Geel is a former Feyenoord and Roda JC player.
FC Twente defeated Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday. However the Dutch title holders do not seem the be In their best of form lately. Last week they only managed to beat seventeenth ranked VVV 2-1 thanks to a late Ola John goal in the 83rd minute.
Excelsior lost its last three league matches and third from bottom team have hardly any hope to avoid the relegation play-offs, trailing fifteenth ranked Vitesse seven points with seven matches left.
FC Twente won its home match against Excelsior 2-1 earlier this season. Leen van Steensel put Excelsior 1-0 up in the 2nd minute, but Nacer Chadli (26’) en Marc Janko (75’) turned the match around to Twente’s advantage.
FC Utrecht only won one of its previous forty Eredivisie matches at PSV. That victory dates back to 1980. PSV won 34 matches and the total goal difference in all forty matches is 123-20 in PSV’s favour.
The Dutch League leaders defeated Rangers FC of Scotland to qualify for the quarter finals of the Europa League on Thrusday. In the league PSV has a one point advantage over title holders FC Twente. The Eindhoven outfit drew 2-2 against NEC in the league last week.
In Utrecht PSV won 2-1 this season. Balázs Dzsudzsák scored both PSV goals and Frank Demouge hit the target for Utrecht in the 81st minute.
Of the title contenders Ajax will face the toughest opponent this weekend, when the play fifth ranked ADO Den Haag. Frank de Boers outfit got hammered 3-0 at Spartak Moscow in the Europa League on Thursday and will have a tough job regrouping for the title race. A big blow for Ajax was the injury for Maarten Stekelenburg, who broke his thumb on a training this week. The goalkeeper will probably be out for the rest of the season.
FC Twente and PSV both qualified for the Europa League quarter finals on Thursday. The title holders will visit Excelsior on Sunday and the league leaders will play host to FC Utrecht.
Vitesse coach Albert Ferrer will start with the same lineup he fielded against sc Heerenveen last week (1-1). “In general I was satisfied with the performance, although I think we should be a bit more aggressive sometimes.”
Vitesse will still miss striker Wilfried Bony another week. The 22-year-old Ivorian, who scored at his debut against De Graafschap a couple of weeks ago, is recovering from a muscle injury. “We don’t want to take risks with him”, Ferrer said.
The past two seasons Vitesse managed to beat AZ in Alkmaar. Both times the home team got 1-0 up, only to lose 2-1 in the end. In Arnhem Vitesse and AZ drew 1-1 this season.
FC Groningen are desperately waiting for the return of Tim Matavz. However the Slovenian striker is not ready yet to return in the league match against FC Groningen on Saturday. Groningen grabbed 1.69 points per match on average with Matavz playing and 1.26 points when he was sidelined.
Groningen took only one point from their last five matches and last week Pieter Huistra’s squad lost its fourth match in a row. The northerners only set two longer losing streaks in Eredivisie history, their longest being six in 1974.
NAC are also in trouble recently, having lost six of their last seven league matches. Meanwhile the club are in financial trouble as well. On Friday the club seemed to be saved from bankruptcy when sponsors decided to donate 1.7 million euro’s. The club is still short of 400.000 euro’s however.
VVV-Venlo will playt host in what could be a decisive relegation battle against Willem II on Saturday. If they lose the bottom ranked visitors will look at an eight point gap towards the second from bottom ranked home team.
VVV will be able to field Niels Fleuren en Youssef El Akchaoui, who recovered from illness and an ankle injury respectively. Willem II will miss the suspended Denis Halilovic and Veli Lampi is a question mark because of an ankle injury.
In Tilburg VVV-Venlo won 4-1 earlier this season. Willem II’s Arjan Swinkels was handed a much discussed red card, which was dropped by the disciplinary committee of the Dutch FA.
“If we don’t win, it’s really going to be tough”, Ron Jans said about the away match against Heracles Almelo on Saturday. The Heerenveen-coach still hopes to qualify for the play-offs for a Europa League ticket at the end of the regular season, but his team will have to turn things around to stay in contention. Heerenveen only took one point from its last four matches. Heerenveen never won an away match at Heracles in the Dutch top flight.
Heracles won its last three matches with a total goal difference of 14-3. On their own artificial turf Peter Bosz’ team is undefeated in its past seven home matches. Heracles lost only one of its twelve home matches this Eredivisie season.
In Friesland Heerenveen defeated Heracles 3-2 earlier this season. The home team got 2-0 up but the visitors managed to fight back and only surrendered when Birgir Maertens scored an own goal in the 94th minute.
NEC will miss Björn Vleminckx against De Graafschap on Saturday. The Eredivisie top scorer left the training with a groin injury this week. “We hope he’ll be back against Vitesse within two weeks” coach Wiljan Vloet said. NEC’s Niki Zimling is suspended.
NEC- De Graafschap is a battle for provincial dominancy. The home team is the highest ranked Eredivisie club from the three clubs of the Gelderland province (NEC, De Graafschap and Vitesse) at the moment.
“It’s good to try and be the best of our province”, said Vloet, who is trying to motivate his players with the regional battle. “De Graafschap is a powerful team and we’ll have to be careful.”
Ajax beat Willem II 3-1 last week, but the score does not reflect the difficulties Ajax had defeating the bottom team. On Thursday the Amsterdam club got hammered 3-0 at Spartak Moscow in the Europa League, but still the Dutch football public seems to believe in the first Dutch title for Ajax since 2004.
This week a public poll in the biggest Dutch football magazine Voetbal International pointed to Ajax as title favorites, despite them being ranked third with a three point deficit towards league leaders PSV. With only seven match rounds to go, FC Twente are second on the table, trailing PSV one point.
Ajax will face fifth ranked ADO Den Haag on Sunday. Frank de Boer chose to leave Mounir El Hamdaoui out of his squad because of their quarrel two weeks ago. However the coach said that he still hopes to get the striker back into the squad and they will be talking to each other on Monday.
The last time Roda JC managed to beat Feyenoord in Kerkrade was in 2001, when Regilio Vrede scored the only goal of the match. Feyenoord won its last six league matches at Roda. Last season Feyenoord won 4-2 at Roda with two goals by former Roda player Sekou Cissé.
At Feyenoord the match ended in a 1-1 draw earlier this season. Mads Junker put Roda 1-0 up in the 24th minute and Luc Castaignos saved a point for the home team in the 87th minute.
Roda JC’s technical director Martin van Geel will move to Feyenoord at the end of the season. The fifty-year-old Van Geel is a former Feyenoord and Roda JC player.
FC Twente defeated Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday. However the Dutch title holders do not seem the be In their best of form lately. Last week they only managed to beat seventeenth ranked VVV 2-1 thanks to a late Ola John goal in the 83rd minute.
Excelsior lost its last three league matches and third from bottom team have hardly any hope to avoid the relegation play-offs, trailing fifteenth ranked Vitesse seven points with seven matches left.
FC Twente won its home match against Excelsior 2-1 earlier this season. Leen van Steensel put Excelsior 1-0 up in the 2nd minute, but Nacer Chadli (26’) en Marc Janko (75’) turned the match around to Twente’s advantage.
FC Utrecht only won one of its previous forty Eredivisie matches at PSV. That victory dates back to 1980. PSV won 34 matches and the total goal difference in all forty matches is 123-20 in PSV’s favour.
The Dutch League leaders defeated Rangers FC of Scotland to qualify for the quarter finals of the Europa League on Thrusday. In the league PSV has a one point advantage over title holders FC Twente. The Eindhoven outfit drew 2-2 against NEC in the league last week.
In Utrecht PSV won 2-1 this season. Balázs Dzsudzsák scored both PSV goals and Frank Demouge hit the target for Utrecht in the 81st minute.
