Sparta Rotterdam vs FC Eindhoven Predictions

Sparta Rotterdam will be strong favourites to land a third Eerste Divisie win on the bounce when they host joint-bottom side FC Eindhoven at Het Kasteel this Friday night.

Hen Fraser’s team have responded well to a narrow 2-1 opening day defeat at FC Twente, beating Volendam 2-0 here on match day two before an impressive 0-1 success away in Waalwijk last week to end RKC’s 100% start to the campaign.

New signing Mohamed Rayhi bagged his first goal since joining from NEC Nijmegen to clinch victory for Sparta in that game and De Kasteelheren sit amongst the chasing pack in 7th heading into this week’s fixture as a result.

And Sparta should be rubbing their hands together ahead of FC Eindhoven’s visit to Rotterdam.

Aside from Blauw-Witten’s disastrous start to the season, Sparta have a dominant head to head record over their forthcoming opponents, winning 12 and drawing four of their 20 previous encounters. More importantly here perhaps, Sparta have never lost to FC Eindhoven in ten meetings at Het Kasteel – the latest of those being a comprehensive 3-0 beating in the 2015/16 campaign.

With that formidable record to boast and back to back league wins suggesting that Sparta are warming to their task, Eindhoven will surely have to pull out all the stops on match day four if they’re to upset the odds.

David Nascimento’s men prop up the table alongside Jong Utrecht after three defeats from three – the latest of those arriving last week with a 0-2 reversal at home to Almere City.

It was Eindhoven’s second home loss on the spin following a 1-2 defeat to Go Ahead Eagles at Jan Louwers Stadion on match day two, and it was a pretty toothless effort in truth from a team who are starting to feel the heat having now failed to win a competitive match since beating Almere 3-2 back in April.

Whilst Eindhoven finished 12^th last term under the guidance of Nascimento, they held the worst defensive record in the division after shipping a massive 83 goals across 38 games. They kept just two clean sheets all season and their problems at the back were the main reason why they lost 50% of their fixtures.

Confidence is bound to be low following their pointless start to 2018/19, and with six goals conceded in their three outings so far, it’s clear that Friday’s visitors still have plenty to address in their rear guard.

Sparta have hardly been prolific with just four goals scored across their three Eerste Divisie fixtures, but the strike force of Lars Veldwijk and Halil Dervisoglu should get plenty of joy at Het Kasteel this week.

Based on the contrasting starts to the season for these clubs, Sparta’s head to head advantage and Eindhoven’s defensive troubles, we fancy the hosts to land the three points here quite comfortably.

This could be the game where Rotterdam really hit their stride and we think Eindhoven will struggle to improve their current concession rate of two goals per game.

So we’re going for Sparta to win covering a one goal handicap, and 4-1 is our selection in the correct score market.