Helmond Sport vs Cambuur Leeuwarden Predictions

Cambuur have been plagued by inconsistency this season, but promising results either side of the festive break have ensured that Rene Hake’s men remain in the Play-off places as we head into match day 21. And the Leeuwarden outfit will be confident of making further progress this Friday when they make the trip to Lavans Stadion, to face a Helmond Sport side who they beat 3-1 in October’s reverse fixture.

After riding high at the start of the campaign with four wins and two draws from their first six games, Cambuur swiftly dropped out of contention with seven defeats from their next 12 outings – temporarily falling into the bottom half and leaving boss Rene Hake with questions to answer in the manager’s hotseat.

But things have been looking up of late for the Leeuwarden outfit, who signed off for Christmas with a decent 1-2 success at MVV, and began the New Year with a highly respectable 3-3 draw at home to automatic promotion challengers Sparta Rotterdam as Matt Steenvoorden, Nigel Robertha and Kevin Jansen all got themselves on the scoresheet.

It means that Cambuur head into match day 21 in 9^th position and occupying the last Play-off place by a single point from Almere City, and they’ll be desperate to build more of a cushion in the coming weeks to guarantee themselves a shot at returning to the Dutch top flight.

With games against Jong AZ, NEC and Dordrecht on the horizon, Cambuur definitely have the chance to rack up a decent haul of points in the coming weeks to solidify their position, and they’ll be keen to shift their momentum forward with a victory at 17^th placed Helmond Sport this Friday night.

Cambuur won the reverse fixture comfortably via 3-1 scoreline which confirms their status as favourites for this week’s clash, but Sport will probably have more to give at home on the back of some improved results in recent weeks.

Indeed, Sport were without a win in the campaign until match day 16 when they shocked Sparta Rotterdam 3-0 from out of the blue, and Rob Alflen’s side have built on that performance since, going down narrowly 1-0 at Go Ahead Eagles before 1-1 draws with Oss and Telstar either side of a 2-0 victory over Jong Utrecht here before Christmas.

So Helmond can’t be underestimated based on the fact they’ve won their last two home matches, and it’s worth remembering that they swept Cambuur aside 3-0 in last season’s corresponding fixture.

It’s not quite enough to convince us that Sport can land the points here at around the 12/5 mark, but Cambuur equally look a touch under priced at around evens as they’re yet to prove their consistency and that they can string several good results together.

So we’re recommending a draw in this one for minimal stakes, and we’re also going for a 2-2 correct score.