🏏 Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:15 CEST
PEC Zwolle
vs
GO Ahead Eagles
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
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- PEC Zwolle go into this one 17th on four points from eight games (1W 1D 6L), with six goals scored and 21 conceded. Their goal difference of -15 is the second worst in the division, bettered only by bottom club Willem II on two points. With Telstar and ADO Den Haag both sitting on six points from nine matches, Zwolle have a game in hand and a two-point gap to close.
- Go Ahead Eagles are ninth on 11 points thanks to a remarkable run of stalemates: 3-3 at Utrecht in round five, 1-1 at home to Groningen, 1-1 at NEC Nijmegen and 3-3 with Sparta Rotterdam last weekend. Their only defeat in eight outings came away at AZ Alkmaar, a 5-2 loss in round four, and their 19 goals scored are more than three times Zwolle's tally of six.
- Zwolle have not won since taking a point from a 2-2 draw at Sparta Rotterdam in round five. Since then they were overwhelmed 0-7 at home by Feyenoord, beaten 3-0 away at Groningen and edged out 0-1 by Cambuur in front of their own supporters. That is three straight blanks and 11 goals conceded, so simply finding the net would represent progress.
- Zwolle set up in a 4-2-3-1 with the 26-year-old, 190cm Van Hooijdonk leading the line. Behind him, Thijs Oosting operates as the number ten: an attacking midfielder raised in the AZ Alkmaar academy who played for Willem II and is currently on loan from Groningen, with the quality of his final ball one of the hosts' few reliable weapons. Alongside him are Belgian Dylan Mbayo, a 175cm dribbler with spells at Kortrijk and Gent, and academy graduate Gilles van der Wal.
- The Eagles' forward line has a heavy Nordic accent. Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson, a 191cm Iceland international who came through Breiðablik and arrived from Norwegian side Sandefjord, spearheads the attack. He is supported by 30-year-old Swede Victor Edvardsen, a Gothenburg native who played for Djurgården and Degerfors, and Denmark's Søren Tengstedt, who recorded 18 goals and six assists in 84 matches for Silkeborg IF and wears the number 10. All three are registered as strikers.
- The double pivots will dictate where this match is played. Zwolle pair 31-year-old New Zealand international Ryan Thomas with 186cm Dane Tobias Sørensen. Thomas first joined the club in 2013, helped win the 2015 Dutch Super Cup, and returned in 2022 after a serious knee injury during his PSV spell, having been converted from winger into a central midfielder. Facing them are Melle Meulensteen, a Manchester United academy product who later turned out for Sampdoria and Vitesse, and box-to-box runner Evert Linthorst, at the club since 2022.
- There is a reunion on the visiting bench. Left-back Julius Dirksen came through the Ajax academy, made his Eredivisie bow at FC Emmen and then spent time at PEC Zwolle before settling in Deventer. The 23-year-old is a 185cm left-footer whose overlapping runs and crossing are his calling cards, so if he is introduced, his duel down that flank with Zwolle right-back Sherel Floranus could shape the closing stages.
- Go Ahead's back four features three natural centre-backs. Joris Kramer, the 30-year-old left-footed AZ Alkmaar product known for his distribution, lines up alongside Dean James, who opted to represent Indonesia at international level in 2025, and 22-year-old Giovanni van Zwam of the Vitesse academy. On the right is Iceland international Alfons Sampsted, a two-time Norwegian league winner with Bodø/Glimt who also played in England with Birmingham City.
- For a side with only six goals all season, Zwolle's bench may be decisive. Koen Kostons, the 186cm striker, scored 32 goals in 157 appearances for MVV Maastricht and 11 in just 16 games for Swedish club Dalkurd before a spell at Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga, and he is the club's leading scorer. Also waiting are the 189cm Dane Elias Sørensen, who has English experience with Newcastle and Blackpool, and 23-year-old Ibrahim Cissoko, formerly of Toulouse and NEC Nijmegen.