Almere City FC vs Maastricht Predictions

Following their highly entertaining clash in the 1^st Round of last season’s Eerste Divisie Play-offs, Almere City and MVV Maastricht lock horns again at Yanmar Stadion this Friday evening in their first meeting of the new campaign.

Visitors MVV will be seeking to avenge their 6-3 aggregate defeat back in May, a frustrating result for Ron Elsen’s side considering they trounced Almere 3-0 at De Geusselt in their last regular league encounter back in February.

But Almere’s triumph over two legs ultimately condemned MVV to a 19^th consecutive season in the Dutch second tier, and Maastricht have so far made an underwhelming start to the campaign.

They managed to pinch a 0-1 victory at Telstar on match day two thanks to a second half winner from Joeri Schroijen, but that result has been sandwiched by consecutive home defeats against TOP Oss on the opening night (0-2) and Go Ahead Eagles (1-2) last Friday.

After finishing 7^th and reaching the 3^rd Round of the Play-offs in 2016/17, MVV’s 10^th place effort and 1^st Round exit last term was undoubtedly a backwards step for the club, and boss Elsen may soon come under pressure unless his charges start firing, despite guiding them to the Play-offs in each season since his tenure began in 2014.

It’s interesting that MVV’s form in their last eight competitive matches reads one win, one draw and six defeats, meaning their poor start is essentially a continuation of how they fizzled out at the end of the last campaign.

Maastricht also lost 12 out of their 19 fixtures on the road in 2017/18, so we can clearly establish plenty of reasons as to why Elsen’s side aren’t fancied to prevail at Yanmar Stadion on Friday evening.

Almere City handed MVV one of their dozen away defeats in the regular season with a 3-2 success back in October, and that at the time sealed Almere’s third home victory over Maastricht on the spin – something they would of course build on with a repeat score line in their home leg of the Play-offs.

City are 6^th in the table heading into match day four, nine places above MVV, and they are one of five teams sitting on a six point haul after securing away victories against Jong AZ (2-3) and FC Eindhoven (0-2) either side of a 1-2 reversal at home to Roda JC in the second week.

With Roda JC amongst the likely promotion favourites, that defeat can largely be forgiven, and it’s likely that Michele Santoni’s men will prove to be strong at Yanmar Stadion again this term having won 11 and drawn four of their 19 home games in 2017/18.

Their usual consistency in front of their own supporters makes Almere a good bet here, especially when you consider their recent head to head advantage over MVV and the woeful form that Friday’s visitors have been in since April.

So we’re playing confidently with a straight bat and backing City to win, with a small saver on a 3-1 score line in favour of the hosts. With the last four meetings between the sides producing 17 goals, we can expect roughly the same in terms of entertainment this week.