🏏 Sun, 11 Oct 2026 14:30 CEST
PEC Zwolle
vs
Cambuur
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
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Match Preview
- This is a genuine six-pointer at the bottom: PEC Zwolle are 16th on four points, Cambuur 15th on five, with ADO Den Haag (17th) and Willem II (18th) both stuck on two and Telstar 14th on the same five. The whole relegation picture is squeezed into three points, a world away from leaders Feyenoord's 20 from eight matches.
- Zwolle's problem is at the back. They have conceded 20 goals in seven games and their -14 goal difference is the second worst in the division behind Willem II's -16. The last two rounds brought a 7-0 home battering by Feyenoord and a 3-0 defeat at Groningen, ten goals in two outings for a back line led by 37-year-old Nick Viergever and 191cm Dane Simon Graves.
- Cambuur arrive unbeaten in three, with a draw-win-draw sequence that has steadied their season. They beat NEC Nijmegen 3-0 at home in round six and drew 1-1 away at ADO Den Haag in round seven, a far cry from the opening weeks when Feyenoord won 5-2 and Twente 4-1 on their own ground. Their ten goals scored also beat Zwolle's tally of six.
- Zwolle's hopes up front rest on Koen Kostons, the 186cm striker leading the line. The 27-year-old scored 32 goals in 157 games for MVV Maastricht, hit 11 in 16 for Dalkurd in Sweden and has 2. Bundesliga experience with SC Paderborn. With the team managing just six goals in seven matches, his right-footed finishing and penalty-box instincts are badly needed.
- The midfield battle pits Zwolle's 4-1-4-1 against Cambuur's 4-2-3-1. Holding the screen alone is 31-year-old New Zealand international Ryan Thomas, who joined Zwolle in 2013, won the 2015 Dutch Super Cup, suffered a serious knee injury at PSV and returned to the club in 2022. He will have to cover the space in front of the back four against the three-man band of Ilyes Hamache, Rafik El Arguioui and Fabian Kvam.
- Thijs Oosting is the creative hub for the hosts. The 26-year-old attacking midfielder is on loan from FC Groningen, came through the AZ Alkmaar academy and played for Willem II before moving north, and his touch and quality of final ball are his calling cards. His supply line runs to Dylan Mbayo, the 25-year-old Belgian with Gent and Kortrijk on his CV, and Ibrahim Cissoko, an NEC Nijmegen graduate who has played for Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth.
- Cambuur's defence is strikingly young. Left-footed 21-year-old centre-back Billy van Duijl, a Volendam academy product, offers 190cm of aerial presence and range of passing; 20-year-old Ismaël Baouf arrived via Anderlecht's youth set-up and Charleroi; and 21-year-old right-sided Morgan Costarelli was schooled at Lille. Behind them stands 192cm goalkeeper Thijs Jansen, a Feyenoord youth product who passed through De Graafschap and FC Oss.
- Captain Jamal Amofa starts on the bench for the visitors. The 27-year-old centre-back has Eredivisie mileage with ADO Den Haag and Go Ahead Eagles and is the obvious option if the game needs closing out or the back line reshaping. Reserve keeper Luka Plogmann adds more: a Werder Bremen academy graduate who won the 2024-25 KNVB Cup with Go Ahead Eagles after recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon.
- Zwolle have a plan B of their own on the bench in 189cm Danish forward Elias Sørensen. Born in 1999 and raised at Esbjerg, he has played in England for Newcastle, Blackpool and Portsmouth, and brings height and physical presence to the front line. Alongside him sits attacking midfielder Odysseus Velanas, an FC Utrecht academy product capped by the Netherlands at U-17, U-18 and U-19 level.