A key battle at the bottom end of the Eredivisie table will take place at Yanmar Stadion on Sunday, as Almere City welcome Heracles.
The hosts currently sit in the automatic relegation zone, while their visitors are five points better off and two above the relegation playoff place after 17 league games.
Match preview
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Almere City return to Eredivisie action on Sunday aiming to continue their climb towards safety, having shown encouraging signs in their last two outings after a dismal first half to the campaign.
In mid-December, De Zwarte Schapen sat at the foot of the table on just six points from 16 league outings in their second straight top-flight campaign, having won just one of those while suffering six straight defeats at the back end of 2024, culminating in a 3-0 beating away at Ajax.
They were able to end their wait for a second Eredivisie win of the campaign in their final game of last year, though, hosting ninth-placed Heerenveen before Christmas and picking up a 3-0 triumph of their own thanks to second-half goals from Adi Nalic, Joey Jacobs and Alex Balboa.
Then following the January appointment of Jeroen Rijsdijk, they kicked off the new year with a trip to Groningen last weekend and added another point to their tally as the contest ended goalless at Euroborg.
Thanks to their slight improvement over the last two outings, albeit with concerns remaining as no side has scored as few as their 10 goals in their 18 matches thus far, Almere City sit three points behind the relegation playoff place and five adrift of automatic safety, and they will hope to further narrow those gaps by adding a third notch to their wins column and a first under Risdijk on Sunday.
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Their visitors, meanwhile, head to Yanmar Stadion hoping to increase their slender lead over the bottom three in the midst of a rut in the Dutch top flight.
Following a 14th-placed finish in their first season back in the Eredivisie last time around, Heracles sat on 12 points from their first 11 outings this term, having won three of those and lost five, but they have since added just three more points to that tally in the last six attempts.
Their struggles have largely come in defence thus far, with only the bottom two having conceded more than the 34 goals that the Heraclieden have allowed in 17 games, and their 2024 culminating in a 5-2 thrashing at the hands of Feyenoord, stretching a winless run to five league matches.
Erwin van de Looi's side then returned to action at home to Sparta Rotterdam last weekend and were able to, at least, snatch a point from a 1-1 draw thanks to Justin Hoogma's injury-time leveller, before most recently visiting De Graafschap on Thursday and booking a KNVB Beker quarter-final spot with a 2-0 triumph courtesy of goals from Thomas Bruns and Suf Podgoreanu.
Now aiming to kick on from that cup win and extend their three-point lead over the relegation playoff place and five-point lead over the bottom two, Heracles will go in search of an important victory on Sunday to move eight points clear of the hosts.
Team News
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Jeroen Rijsdijk should field a similar Almere City starting XI to last week's draw with Groningen, with Hamdi Akujobi, Joey Jacobs, Theo Barbet and Vasilios Zagaritis bound to continue in a back four after consecutive clean sheets.
With no player in the squad having netted more than two goals so far this season, Charles-Andreas Brym should again lead the line after making his debut last time out, likely with support from Jochem Ritmeester van de Kamp, Thomas Robinet and either Junior Kadile or Adi Nalic.
Heracles are set to remain without Sava-Arangel Cestic, Nikolai Laursen and Luka Kulenovic, who leads the squad with six goals this term, due to ongoing injury issues.
In the latter's expected absence, Jizz Hornkamp should continue to lead the line, while Thomas Bruns will hope to again line up in support after scoring in their midweek cup win.
Indeed, he could again join Mario Engels and Juho Talvitie, while Jan Zamburek will hope to keep his place alongside mainstay Brian De Keersmaecker in the engine room.
Almere City possible starting lineup:
Bakker; Akujobi, Jacobs, Barbet, Zagaritis; Tahiri, Haye; Ritmeester van de Kamp, Robinet, Nalic; Brym
Heracles possible starting lineup:
De Keijzer; Wieckhoff, Mesik, Hoogma, Milani; Zamburek, De Keersmaecker; Talvitie, Bruns, Engels; Hornkamp
We say: Almere City 1-1 Heracles
We certainly expect a tight contest on Sunday between two sides who have struggled for large parts of the 2024-25 campaign thus far in what is a crucial game in the battle for survival.
Buoyed by their first displays under new management, we back Almere City to continue an unbeaten streak and take a share of the spoils with home advantage.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Sam Varley
