FC Twente vs Excelsior Predictions, Betting Tips & Match Preview

FC Twente finished a disappointing and unsurprising 13th in their 2015/2016 Eredivisie season. Twente have found themselves in much financial trouble over recent years, with the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) being forced to deduct 6 points from them during the 2014/2015 season and again forced to declare its intent to relegate the side in May 2016 – a decision that was later overturned by appeal. Twente’s 2009/10 Eredivisie title under Steve McClaren feels like a distant dream amidst all the controversy and their preseason preparation indicates their struggle is unfortunately likely to continue this year.

S.B.V Excelsior, who are based in Rotterdam, have been one of the most up and down “bouncing” teams within the Dutch football league in recent years. Since 2006, Excelsior have been relegated twice and promoted three times.  They finished all of their seasons in the top flight, either within or just outside the relegation zone. Last season was no exception as Excelsior finished in 15th place and just one point above Willem II and the relegation play off positions. Excelsior have done very little during their preseason to indicate that there is much cause for change heading into this season.

Though FC Twente have had a lot of financial trouble and disappointment in recent times, one player in particular has almost single handedly helped kept them afloat. Hakim Ziyech, who scored 17 goals over 33 appearances last season, remains, at the time of writing, still with the club and is likely to feature against Excelsior. FC Twente are not only the better side on paper but their strong home record, towards the end of last season, makes them the favourites for this match. The hosts ended last season with just one defeat in their last ten (W7 D2 L1) home matches, a defeat none were surprised about against 3rd placed Feyenoord. Meanwhile, Excelsior are a team that really struggled on the road last season, regardless of who their opponents were, taking just four points from their last nine away matches (W1 D1 L7).  They failed to score in six of these (losing 2-0 or 3-0 in five of the seven defeats).

Combining this analysis with the statistics below, we expect FC Twente -1.0 Asian Handicap at 2.300 and FC Twente to win 2-0 at 17/2 with bet365 to both be top value bets for this match.