Almere City and AZ Alkmaar get the ball rolling on their 2024-25 Eredivisie campaign with a meeting at the Yanmar Stadion on Saturday evening.
The home side did well enough to avoid relegation in their debut top-flight season last time out, while the visitors finished fourth for a second year running.
Match preview
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AZ Alkmaar flew out of the blocks with 26 points from the first 30 available to lay down an early marker last time out but were unable to sustain their initial momentum and ran out of steam as the season progressed.
This ultimately contributed to the dismissal of head coach Pascal Jansen midway through the campaign, with youth team manager Maarten Martens taking the reins at the AFAS Stadion.
Seeking to inspire a change in fortune, Martens endured a rough start to life as he failed to win any of his opening five games across all competitions, before managing to turn things around in the final 10 matches, picking up seven wins and a draw.
However, that could only earn the Cheeseheads a fourth-place finish behind PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord and FC Twente in the league standings with 65 points from 34 outings.
AZ carried over their end-of-season form into their warm-up games for the new campaign, winning all but two of their seven friendly matches while also scoring a whopping 23 goals in that time.
Saturday's visitors will now go in search of a third opening-day win in a row, having beaten Go Ahead Eagles in each of the last two editions since narrowly losing 1-0 to RKC Waalwijk in August 2021.
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Almere City were unsurprisingly tipped by many to suffer relegation from the Eredivisie due to their inexperience at this level, but they defied expectations by finishing 13th, five points clear of the drop zone.
Hedwiges Maduro's men largely had their defence to thank for staying afloat of relegation danger, as their tally of 10 clean sheets was only bettered by four teams in the entire division.
This more than made up for a misfiring attacking unit, which scored the second-fewest goals with 33 strikes from 34 matches, highlighting the biggest area of concern for De Zwarte Schapen going forward.
Having lost a significant amount of players from last season's squad, Almere have had to be active in the transfer market, bringing in 10 new arrivals heading into their sophomore top-flight journey.
Saturday's hosts now prepare for the first of two daunting assignments in their opening two home games of the campaign with defending champions PSV Eindhoven scheduled to come to town next after AZ this weekend.
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Team News
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Sem Westerveld remains out of contention here, with the AZ goalkeeper still a considerable way off returning to action from a knee injury.
Twenty-one-year-old Mexx Meerdink is a major doubt for the away side, having been sidelined since mid-March with a groin problem.
New signing Troy Parrott found the back of the net in all of his pre-season outings since joining from Tottenham Hotspur and will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas Robinet was responsible for a third of Almere's 33 league goals last time out, making him one to keep an eye on.
Christopher Mamengi is closing in on a return to action for the home side after missing the last four months due to a long-term knee injury.
Almere City possible starting lineup:
Bakker; Visus, Jacobs, Floranus; Balboa, Carbonell, Guillaume, Zagaritis; Mattoir, Hansen, Robinet
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Zoet; Wolfe, Martins Indi, Goes, Maikuma; Koopmeiners, Clasie; Van Brederode, Mijnans, Sadiq; Parrott
We say: Almere City 1-2 AZ Alkmaar
Almere City rounded off their pre-season campaign with three straight wins, and that should inspire a level of confidence in this weekend's hosts.
That said, we are tipping AZ to come out on top from what should be an open and end-to-end affair.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
