🏏 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:30 CEST
FC Twente
vs
ADO Den Haag
4-2-3-1 vs 5-3-2
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Match Preview
- Twente are fifth with ten points from five games (three wins, a draw and one defeat, goal difference plus five) and welcome bottom-half strugglers ADO Den Haag, who sit 17th on a single point with a minus-eight goal difference. AZ Alkmaar have set the pace with 16 points from six, while Twente are level on ten with fourth-placed Excelsior and sixth-placed Fortuna Sittard. ADO, meanwhile, are level on points with bottom club Cambuur and only ahead of them on goal difference.
- Twente's only defeat came on the opening weekend, a 1-0 loss away at Heerenveen. Since then they have beaten PEC Zwolle 3-1 and Telstar 1-0 at home, won 4-1 at Cambuur and drawn 2-2 away at Groningen. Ten scored and five conceded in five matches is a balanced return, and they have won both of their home league games so far.
- ADO have shipped 14 goals in five matches, which is the number that defines their season to date. They lost 2-0 at AZ, 4-1 at home to Groningen and 3-1 at Go Ahead Eagles, then went down 3-2 to Fortuna Sittard on home soil last time out. Their only point came in round four, a 2-2 draw away at third-placed Feyenoord, and reproducing that away performance is the template they need here.
- The tactical puzzle is Twente's 4-2-3-1 against ADO's 5-3-2. The visitors will look to pack the width with a back five and use a midfield trio of American-born Jaylen Hawkins (25), F. de Bruin and Finland's Juho Kilo (24) to outnumber Twente in the centre. Twente sit two holding midfielders, Daouda Weidmann (23, CM, a Paris Saint-Germain academy product) and Ramiz Zerrouki (28, CM), so how they solve that three-versus-two will shape the opening period.
- The aerial battle is the headline duel. Twente lead the line with 197cm Wout Weghorst (34, CF), the Netherlands international who scored 70 goals in 144 games for Wolfsburg and has worn the shirts of Burnley, Manchester United, Besiktas and Ajax. ADO answer with height of their own: Milan Hoeke (22, 190cm), Belgian Matteo Waem (26, 189cm) and 20-year-old Otoniel Laterink (189cm) are all in the back five, so crossing quality and second balls will matter enormously.
- Twente's attacking band of three is full of character. Sondre Oliaseter (22, LW) is a right-footed inverted winger who arrived from Norwegian side Sarpsborg 08, while left-footed Moroccan Younes Taha (23, RW) helped win the 2023 CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations and once started 31 games and scored 14 in the Eerste Divisie with PEC Zwolle. Alongside them, number seven Marko Pjaca (27, LW, 170cm) was part of Croatia's 2018 World Cup runners-up squad and has played for Juventus, Schalke, Fiorentina and Torino.
- There is a homecoming story in midfield. Zerrouki came through Twente's academy, made 108 appearances for the club and earned Algeria caps before joining Feyenoord in 2023, returning to Enschede on loan in 2025. His partner Weidmann came out of the PSG academy, spent time at Torino and made his name at RKC Waalwijk before signing in 2025. Two box-to-box profiles carrying the ball forward is Twente's most likely route through a packed defence.
- The goalkeeping gap is stark. Lars Unnerstall (36, Germany) stands 198cm and 103kg, came through Schalke's academy and had a spell at PSV before becoming Twente's first choice in 2021. Behind him sit Joel Drommel (29, 192cm), an Eredivisie title winner with PSV, and 42-year-old Pasveer, a veteran of Ajax, PSV and Vitesse. ADO trust 23-year-old Burkina Faso goalkeeper Kilian Nikiema (188cm), who has already picked the ball out of his net 14 times this season.
- ADO's front two mixes size and rawness: 20-year-old Czech Yannick Ferreira Eduardo stands 193cm and came through the RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim academies, partnered by Evan Rottier (24, 182cm), a product of FC Oss and FC Eindhoven. The bench offers contrast in 36-year-old, 170cm Daryl van Mieghem and 19-year-old Jesse Bal, a Sparta Rotterdam youth graduate who spent time on loan at Parma and now wears the number nine. Whether they can punish a top-six side on the break is the question.