De Graafschap vs VVV Venlo Predictions

After a tremendous 2-0 opening day victory against Feyenoord on their return to Eredivisie, newly promoted De Graafschap failed to fire in their subsequent three fixtures before the international break. Can Henk de Jong’s side rediscover their best form this weekend against a tough VVV outfit?

The international break probably came at a good time for De Graafschap, who struggled to cope after their surprise success against Feyenoord in week one.

Superboeren were given a real wake-up call on match day two as they lost 3-0 at NAC Breda, and they failed to really recover from that defeat several days later, going down 0-1 at home to Groningen.

De Graafschap signed off with a respectable 1-1 draw against fellow promoted side Emmen a fortnight ago, but the last two weeks will have given de Jong and his squad a chance to regroup and assess why they couldn’t build on their opening game.

Survival is of course the main aim for De Graafschap this term, but achieving that should still require a fair number of points, as there doesn’t look to be any really weak teams in the division this term.

And they’ll do well to improve their 12^th place in the table this weekend as they come up against a VVV outfit who appear to have progressed significantly over the summer.

Maurice Steijn’s charges only just avoided the relegation Play-offs in 2017/18 on their return to Eredivisie, having managed to win just seven of their 34 league games.

VVV have only won one from four so far this term, but they seem to be a much stronger and sterner proposition that doesn’t give much away.

They were narrowly edged out 0-1 at home to Ajax on match day two, but that was a respectable result considering how most teams fare against the Amsterdam giants, and they’ve otherwise gained five points by beating Willem II (0-1) and drawing 1-1 with Utrecht and Heerenveen.

A big plus point for VVV this weekend is their excellent recent record against De Graafschap, having beaten them in three of their last four competitive meetings, and after avoiding defeat in 13 of their last 19 Eredivisie games on the road, Venlo will be confident of getting a positive result at De Vijverberg.

The bookies have De Graafschap as slight favourites here, but we think VVV could have too much nous for them. They look defensively sound and will make themselves difficult to beat, as they have been so regularly away from home.

We think De Graafschap will struggle to break them down, and a wager on the visitors ‘draw no bet’ makes appeal.

This should be a tight and cagey affair based on how VVV have gone about their business so far and De Graafschap’s lack of potency in front of goal. So we’re also backing a 0-1 success for the visitors for small stakes.