🏏 Sun, 23 Aug 2026 12:15 CEST
GO Ahead Eagles
vs
ADO Den Haag
4-2-3-1 vs 4-4-2
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- A meeting of two clubs at opposite ends of the early table. Go Ahead Eagles sit third on four points from a win and a draw, with six goals scored, three conceded and a plus-three difference. ADO Den Haag are 16th on zero points after two defeats, having managed one goal while shipping six for a minus-five difference. With leaders AZ Alkmaar already on nine points from three games, the Eagles are chasing the top, while ADO are still hunting their first point of the campaign.
- Go Ahead Eagles remain unbeaten. They opened with a 4-1 home rout of Willem II, who are still pointless in 17th, and then went to Feyenoord and came away with a 2-2 draw against a side now seventh on four points. Beating the strugglers and hanging on against one of the big three is close to the ideal start, and back on home soil three points look a realistic target here.
- ADO Den Haag are back in the Eredivisie for the first time in five seasons and have lost both matches so far: 0-2 away at AZ Alkmaar, then 1-4 at home to Groningen, who are second on six points from two games. Conceding four in front of their own crowd is the alarming detail, and six goals against in two matches is a worrying platform against an Eagles attack that has already produced six.
- The midfield shapes do not match up neatly. Go Ahead Eagles line up 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot of Melle Meulensteen, a 27-year-old holding midfielder schooled at Manchester United who has since played for Sampdoria, Vitesse and RKC Waalwijk, alongside Evert Linthorst, a 26-year-old box-to-box runner from Venlo who has been at the club since 2022. ADO's 4-4-2 gives them a numerical edge in the centre, where Finland's Juho Kiilo, 24 and a product of Haka, partners Czech midfielder Jan Zamburek, 25, whose career has taken in Brentford, Shrewsbury and Heracles.
- The Eagles' attacking band is loaded with forwards. Erik Hlatakel, a 21-year-old Norwegian who arrived via Sogndal and AIK Stockholm, leads the line at 182cm, while two natural strikers operate behind him: number 10 Soren Tengstedt, 26 and 187cm, who scored 18 goals with six assists in 84 games for Silkeborg IF, and 30-year-old Victor Edvardsen, a Gothenburg native formed at Djurgarden and IFK Goteborg. Belgian Mats Sluis, 25, an Anderlecht academy graduate with a KNVB Cup winner's medal and Europa League minutes, sets the tempo from the left.
- ADO's back line is young but tall. Othniel Lateringen, a 20-year-old born in 2006 who stands 189cm, partners 22-year-old Milan Hoeke, a 190cm centre-back developed at Feyenoord. Flanking them are Pascal Mulder, 27, who worked his way up through the Dutch lower leagues at HHC and Staphorst, and Guinea-born full-back Sekou Sylla, also 27. Behind them stands 23-year-old Burkinabe goalkeeper Kilian Nikiema at 188cm. Bridging the experience gap against a settled Eagles front line is the challenge.
- The visitors' front two offers a physical mismatch to aim at. Yanick Ferreira Eduardo, a 20-year-old Czech forward of 193cm who came through RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim before spells at Emmen and Dordrecht, partners Evan Rottier, 24, a 182cm attacker from FC Oss and FC Eindhoven who can hold the ball up. With only one goal in two matches, much depends on 36-year-old Daryl van Mieghem, the 170cm veteran of Volendam and Excelsior, supplying service from the right.
- Go Ahead Eagles can change the game with height off the bench. Stefan Ingi Sigurdarson, a 23-year-old Iceland international of 191cm, joined from Sandefjord after developing at Breidablik for a fee close to the club record. Alongside him is Ricconel Margaretha, a 25-year-old Suriname international also standing 191cm, a target man with AZ and RKC on his CV, and Belgian striker Thibo Baeten, 24, a Club Brugge academy product with time at Torino. Winger Oscar Sivertsen, 22, who made his Eliteserien debut at 16, offers a different threat on the left.
- The Eagles' defence is built around their cup-winning core. Joris Kramer, a 30-year-old left-footed centre-back raised at AZ Alkmaar, has long ties to the club including a previous loan spell and helped them lift the 2024-25 KNVB Cup. He partners Dean James, 26, an Ajax and Volendam academy graduate who opted to represent Indonesia in 2025. At right-back, Iceland international Alfons Sampsted, 29, brings two Norwegian league titles won with Bodo/Glimt plus experience at Birmingham City and Twente, while Ajax-trained Julius Dirksen, 23, supplies left-footed crosses from the opposite flank.