Neck and neck in the league table, Go Ahead Eagles and NAC Breda will do battle at De Adelaarshorst on Saturday afternoon in round 17 of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season.
Neither team came away with maximum points from their most recent league outings as the hosts played out a thrilling stalemate against FC Utrecht, while their visitors fell to a narrow defeat against AZ Alkmaar.
Match preview
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Go Ahead Eagles kicked off December on a bad note by surrendering a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to FC Twente, and they were guilty of doing the same against Utrecht on Sunday, albeit managing to secure a share of the spoils this time around.
Paul Simonis's men saw off the challenge of Sparta Rotterdam on Wednesday courtesy of a penalty shootout victory at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel, where Charles-Andreas Brym cancelled out Jakob Breum's opener just past the half-hour mark to send the tie to spot kicks.
Consequently, the Pride of the Ijssel Kowet are now unbeaten in three straight matches for the first time since October, when they went four games without defeat before suffering a humiliating 5-1 loss to Feyenoord.
Go Ahead Eagles will now set out to equal their longest unbeaten streak of the campaign, and standing in the way is a NAC Breda outfit that are yet to come out on top in any of the previous seven editions of this fixture, losing five times.
Having won both of their last two home matches by a combined score of 8-0, Saturday's hosts are loving life in front of their fans at the moment and will certainly take some stopping in this weekend's affair.
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Off the back of consecutive victories over Almere City and Sparta Rotterdam, NAC Breda welcomed AZ Alkmaar to the Rat Verlegh Stadion on Sunday with the wind in their sails and looked set to claim a third win on the spin when Elias Mar Omarsson struck the opener after 12 minutes.
Carl Hoefkens's men held on to their narrow advantage until the 76th minute as Troy Parrott levelled matters before Mees de Wit struck in second-half stoppage time to complete the turnaround.
Missing out on the opportunity to move into seventh place in the standings, Parel van het Zuiden remain ninth in the standings, level on points with their next opponents and outside the Conference League playoff places only on goal difference.
Nonetheless, NAC Breda have a lot of improvement to make at both ends of the pitch if they are to mount a serious continental push, having scored the fewest goals in the top half (18), while only Go Ahead Eagles (26) have been breached on more occasions (25).
Taking to the field for the final time in 2024, Saturday's visitors will be keen to end the year on a winning note before getting their 2025 journey underway with a home clash against a resurgent Heerenveen outfit.
Team News
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Enric Llansana will not take part for Go Ahead Eagles here as he serves a suspension for his red card in the early exchanges of Sunday's game against FC Utrecht.
In Llansana's absence, Mathis Suray could be handed a rare starting appearance to feature alongside Evert Linthorst in the centre of the midfield.
Breda's Leo Greiml received his marching orders for two bookable offences in the final knockings of the defeat to AZ Alkmaar, ruling him out of contention here.
Boy Kemper and Jan Van den Bergh were both shown a fifth yellow card of the season in the aforementioned game, meaning that they will serve a one-game ban this weekend.
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Plogmann; James, Kramer, Nauber, Deijl; Linthorst, Suray; O Edvardsen, Breum, Antman; V Edvardsen
NAC Breda possible starting lineup:
Bielica; Lucassen, Kongolo, Royo, Mahmutovic; Jensen, Balard; Paula, Leemans, Sauer; Omarsson
We say: Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 NAC Breda
There is not so much separating the teams ahead of this one, and a close contest is on the cards here.
That said, we are leaning towards a home victory, albeit by only a narrow margin, when all is said and done.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
