🏏 Wed, 9 Sep 2026 18:45 CEST
FC Twente
vs
Telstar
4-2-3-1 vs 3-4-2-1
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- Twente sit eighth on seven points from four games, Telstar 14th on four. Both have played one fixture fewer than most of the division because this is the postponed matchday three, and the goal columns tell the story: 9 scored and 5 conceded for the hosts (+4) against 5 and 10 for the visitors (-5). A home win would lift Twente to 10 points, level with fourth-placed Excelsior and fifth-placed Fortuna Sittard.
- After losing 1-0 at Heerenveen on the opening weekend, Twente have gone three matches unbeaten: 3-1 at home to PEC Zwolle, a 4-1 win away at Cambuur and a 2-2 draw at Groningen last time out. Every one of their nine league goals has come in those three games, meaning they have not been shut out since round one. Keeping that scoring run going in front of their own crowd is the first thing to watch.
- Telstar opened with a 2-1 win at NEC Nijmegen, a fine result for a newly promoted side, but home form has been the problem: 1-3 against Sparta Rotterdam, 0-4 against Ajax and a 2-2 draw with bottom club Cambuur. Three matches in Velsen-Zuid have yielded no wins, and 10 goals conceded in four outings is the number the club must fix in their first Eredivisie campaign for 47 years.
- Telstar right wing-back Gerard Alders, 21, faces the club he once served. An Ajax academy product, he spent time on loan at Twente before joining Telstar in February 2026 and re-signing for 2026-27. Deployed in the right lane of the 3-4-2-1, he will go head-to-head with Twente's left-sided attacker Sondre Orjasaeter down that flank.
- Twente lead the line with 197cm Wout Weghorst, 34, a Netherlands international who scored 70 goals in 144 games for Wolfsburg and has also played for Manchester United, Burnley and Besiktas. His hold-up play and aerial threat will be tested by a Telstar back three built around 35-year-old Belgian Marvin Peersman (185cm), a free signing this summer after spells at Groningen and Cambuur. Crosses and set pieces could decide it.
- The goalkeeping contrast is striking. Twente's Lars Unnerstall, 36, stands 198cm and 103kg, arrived in 2021 after Schalke, Fortuna Dusseldorf and PSV, and has been first choice ever since. Telstar counter with Ronald Koeman Jr, 31, son of the Netherlands head coach, born in Barcelona and a hero of the club's promotion, named their player of the year and recently tied to a contract through 2028.
- Twente's double pivot pairs Ramiz Zerrouki, 28, and Daouda Weidmann, 23. The Algeria international came through the Twente academy, made 108 appearances before joining Feyenoord and returned on loan in 2025, giving the midfield a familiar heartbeat. Weidmann, a box-to-box Frenchman schooled at Paris Saint-Germain and developed via Torino and RKC Waalwijk, supplies the legs. Whether that pair can outnumber Telstar's four-man line decides the territory.
- Telstar's midfield quartet is unusual: natural striker Ouwens, 27, and natural right winger Rossen, 21, are fielded centrally, with the left lane belonging to 31-year-old Haldeveld. A Feyenoord academy graduate with Eredivisie mileage at Utrecht, Heracles and Emmen, he is the side's set-piece taker and his left-footed delivery may be the visitors' most realistic route to a goal if they spend the night defending.
- All three of Twente's attacking midfielders can attack one-on-one. Younes Taha, 23, is a left-footed Morocco youth international who helped win the 2023 CAF U-23 Cup of Nations and once started 31 Eerste Divisie matches with 14 goals for PEC Zwolle. Daan Rots, 25, is a left-footed academy graduate who debuted in 2021, while Norwegian Sondre Orjasaeter, 22, signed from Sarpsborg 08, is a right-footed inverted winger on the left.
- Twente also hold the edge on the bench. Marko Pjaca, a World Cup runner-up in 2018 with spells at Juventus, Schalke and Fiorentina, sits alongside Turkish playmaker Naci Unuvar, who debuted for Ajax at 16 and holds their youngest-scorer penalty record, plus 190cm former captain Robin Propper, 32. Telstar's options include Emirhan Demircan, 21, a Bayern Munich academy product and Turkey U19 international, and Jeraldi Seedorf, 22, nephew of Clarence Seedorf.