Almere City FC vs Cambuur Leeuwarden Predictions

Almere City briefly looked like pinching a 1^st leg lead at Cambuurstadion on Friday night, however an Andrej Ciganiks equaliser 20 minutes from time ensured that the spoils were shared in Leeuwarden. It was a fair result overall after both teams performed well, but it’s Schappenkoppen who will be fancied to edge their way through to the next round on Tuesday evening with home advantage on their side.

City may have ended the regular season with a rather embarrassing 8-0 hammering away to Jong Ajax, but their home form remained strong throughout the final three months of the campaign.

Ole Tobiasen’s side have won their last five at Yanmar Stadion and seven out of their last eight overall – a run which has included three victories against teams that finished above them in the top six (3-0 vs Oss, 3-1 vs Den Bosch, 2-1 vs Jong PSV).

Providing they hit that standard on Tuesday night, they will surely have enough in hand to see off Cambuur, who they beat 2-1 here back in November.

Tuesday’s visitors claimed the final Play-off place after securing a credible 2-2 draw away to champions Twente on match day 38, and they head into the 2nd leg having lost just one of their last half dozen games on the road.

Rene Hake’s men were probably flattered by that result in Enschede though, considering that Twente had already started their promotion celebrations, and you sense that the Leeuwarden missed their opportunity in this tie by failing to bank a lead in the 1^st instalment.

Barring that aforementioned trouncing in Amsterdam, Almere have been a model of consistency under the guidance of Tobiasen and they simply can’t be opposed here in the betting at a shade off odds-against.

Their recent record at Yanmar Stadion is extremely impressive to say the least, and they have netted at least two goals in all but one of their last eight matches in front of their own fans. It means that Cambuur will probably have to notch three or four times here if they are to come out on top, and we just can’t see that happening, as City have kept five clean sheets at home since the start of February.