AZ Alkmaar vs De Graafschap Predictions

De Graafschap moved to within two points of this weekends hosts thanks to an impressive 4-1 win over Excelsior last weekend, while AZ Alkmaar suffered a third straight league defeat at home to Heerenveen. The two sides clash on Saturday and a win for the visitors would see the newly promoted club leapfrog AZ who are currently sitting in ninth place.

AZ Alkmaar took the lead against Heerenveen through a sixteenth minute strike from Ouwejan, but the pair went in level at the break thanks to Vlap’s thirtieth minute equaliser for the visitors. Eleven minutes into the second half and Vlap was at it again to put Heerenveen in front eleven minutes into the second half, but AZ appeared to have rescued a point when Iceland’s Gudmundsson made it 2-2 in the seventy-ninth minute.

However, the visitors, who had not created as many chances as their hosts or seen as much of the ball, scored an eighty-fourth minute winner through Lammers and pinched all three points from under the noses of AZ Alkmaar. AZ had 58% of the match possession, six corners to their guests one, and fifteen shots to Heerenveen’s nine, but still ended up losing the game.

With four Eredivisie goals to his name, Idrissi top scores for Heerenveen this season, but is closely followed by Boadu and Johnsen who have each chipped in with two goals apiece. De Graafschap’s top scorer in the league so far is Serrarens with three goals, but teammates El Jebli and Nijland are both on two goals each.

All three players managed to get their names on the scoreboard as De Graafschap beat Excelsior 4-1 at home last weekend, but it was van Mieghem that opened the scoring for the hosts in the twenty-fifth minute. An Ómarsson equaliser in the thirty-eighth minute meant the two teams went in level at the half time break, but five minutes after the restart Narsingh restored De Graafschap’s lead and teammate El Jebli made it 3-1 five minutes later.

Excelsior were reduced to ten men in the sixty-sixth minute when Mattheij received his second yellow card of the match, and Serrarens the hosts fourth and final goal of the game in the seventieth minute to wrap up a 4-1 win. De Graafschap are going to need to put in a simialr performance this weekend and hope AZ’s poor run continues if they are to take all three points and move ahead of their hosts.

We’re confident that both teams will score and that over 2.5 goals will be produced when the pair lock horns on Saturday, with the result ending in a 2-2 draw. Both teams have scored and over 2.5 goals were produced in four of the last six meetings between AZ and De Graafschap. Both teams have scored and over 2.5 goals have been produced in four of AZ Alkmaar’s and De Graafschap’s last six matches.