Sparta Rotterdam vs Telstar Predictions

With Go Ahead Eagles pinching a 0-1 victory at Almere City last weekend, Sparta Rotterdam’s 1-1 draw at Roda JC wasn’t enough to keep them in a share of the lead at the top of Eerste Divisie. Henk Fraser’s charges will be seeking to swiftly eradicate their two point deficit on match day 11, when they entertain an inconsistent Telstar side who were trounced 0-3 at home to NEC last time out.

It seemed as though Lars Veldwijk’s strike at the start of the second half would prove enough for Sparta to leave Parkstad Limburg Stadion with all three points on match day ten, but Roda JC were awarded a penalty 13 minutes from time which was duly converted by Mitchell Paulissen.

A point in Kerkrade was far from a disaster for Sparta, but it did bring up their third draw from five away matches this term and temporarily means that they trail Go Ahead by two points at the head of affairs.

Whilst Rotterdam seem to have trouble closing out games on the road, they have no such issues at home, boasting a perfect record of five victories from five at Het Kasteel so far this season. Sparta have been ruthlessly efficient in front of their own supporters, securing four of those wins to nil, including a resounding 3-0 success over 7^th placed Cambuur a fortnight ago.

And if Sparta turn up in anything like the same form this Friday, they’ll surely be far too strong for a Telstar outfit who are struggling to string two decent performances together at present.

A decent 6^th in the 2017/18 campaign with just nine defeats from their 38 fixtures, Telstar have lost six times already this season and they were blown away 0-3 in Ijmuiden last weekend by a resurgent NEC side.

Boss Mike Snoei will clearly be given time to turn things around at the club after his efforts last term, but fans will soon be demanding change after eyeing the Play-offs again in pre-season and a potential end to their club’s 41 year stay in the second tier.

Telstar are 13^th and seven points off the top five at the moment, and that gap is likely to widen if they come away from Rotterdam empty handed. That’s the most likely outcome here, as even Telstar’s four victories this season breed little confidence, considering three of them were against Eerste Divisie’s current bottom three.

This will be the first meeting between the sides since the 2015/16 campaign when Sparta ran out winners of both league fixtures, and we’re backing them to do the same here without conceding.

We know that Sparta have kept clean sheets in 80% of their home matches this term, whilst Telstar have failed to get on the score-sheet in five of their six league defeats. It all appears pretty ominous for Mike Snoei’s charges here, and we’re going for a 3-0 result in favour of the hosts.