🏏 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 16:45 CEST
NEC Nijmegen
vs
GO Ahead Eagles
3-4-2-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- A mid-table meeting between 11th-placed NEC Nijmegen and ninth-placed Go Ahead Eagles. Both have played six matches: NEC have seven points from two wins, a draw and three defeats, while the Eagles sit two points better off on nine, with two wins, three draws and a single loss. Leaders AZ Alkmaar are already on 19 points from seven games, so neither side can afford to drift.
- NEC have been a team of extremes. They won 4-1 at Willem II and 3-1 at PEC Zwolle on the road, but lost 3-1 at home to Feyenoord and were beaten 3-0 at 14th-placed Cambuur last time out. With 11 goals scored and 12 conceded in six matches, they tend to be involved in open games, and tightening up at home is the immediate priority.
- Go Ahead Eagles have been just as watchable, scoring 15 and conceding 13 in six outings. They drew 2-2 at Feyenoord and 3-3 at Utrecht, then were held 1-1 at home by Groningen, and their only defeat was a 5-2 loss at AZ on matchday four. Three draws in six games underline a side that creates plenty but struggles to close matches out.
- Eagles centre-back Joris Kramer faces one of his former clubs. The 30-year-old left-footer came through the AZ Alkmaar academy, spent time at NEC and has a long association with Go Ahead Eagles, including their 2024-25 KNVB Cup triumph. His accurate left-foot distribution and organisation of the line will be tested by NEC's 3-4-2-1 front three.
- NEC's attack is built on experience. Dušan Tadić, 37, operates behind the striker having won the Eredivisie and reached a Champions League semi-final with Ajax, with earlier spells at Southampton, Twente and Groningen. Ahead of him is 35-year-old Bryan Linssen, a 170cm centre-forward who scored regularly for Feyenoord and Vitesse and spent time in Japan with Urawa Red Diamonds; his penalty-box instincts remain sharp.
- There is a strong Icelandic thread running through this fixture. Eagles striker Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson, 23 and 191cm, came through Breiðablik before arriving from Norwegian side Sandefjord for a near club-record fee. Right-back Alfons Sampsted is another Breiðablik product, a full international who won the Norwegian title twice with Bodø/Glimt. On the NEC bench sits Willum Þór Willumsson, the 193cm Iceland international who broke through in the Eredivisie with Go Ahead Eagles.
- The Eagles' attacking band is stacked with natural forwards. No.10 Søren Tengstedt scored 18 goals with six assists in 84 games for Silkeborg IF and combines 187cm hold-up play with runs in behind. Sweden's Victor Edvardsen, 30, is a powerful finisher shaped by Djurgården and IFK Göteborg, while Anderlecht academy graduate Mathis Suray, 25, sets the tempo from a central role.
- The holding midfield duel is intriguing. NEC's Darko Nejašmić, 27, was schooled at Hajduk Split and Osijek and covers ground to break up play, with 22-year-old Frenchman Noé Lebreton, a Caen product, looking to play forward. Go Ahead Eagles counter with Melle Meulensteen, 27, a Manchester United academy graduate who also played for Sampdoria, alongside the tireless Evert Linthorst, 26, who was developed at PSV.
- NEC's back three mixes youth and pedigree: 191cm Perr Schuurs, 26, who went from Ajax to Torino, is flanked by 22-year-old Dane Tobias Storm, just 176cm, and Portuguese defender Gabriel Brás, also 22, with 187cm Austrian goalkeeper Nikolas Polster behind them. The Eagles' back line features Dean James, an Ajax youth product who opted to represent Indonesia in 2025, and left-back Julius Dirksen, 23, another Ajax academy graduate.
- Both benches carry real options. NEC can call on 36-year-old left-footed centre-back Bram Nuytinck, a Serie A veteran with Udinese and Sampdoria who won three Belgian titles at Anderlecht, plus Cape Verde international Jamiro Monteiro, 32, a former Designated Player at Philadelphia Union, and Manchester United academy product Isak Hansen-Aarøen, 22. For the visitors, Club Brugge-schooled striker Thibo Baeten, 24, who has also played in Italy with Torino, is the obvious late weapon.