Almere City FC vs Twente Predictions

Twente clearly had one eye on the KNVB Beker as they scraped their way past lowly Jong Utrecht last Friday; however the Enschede outfit ultimately came up short against Willem II in midweek to exit the cup at the last eight stage. Marino Pusic’s charges must bury that disappointment fast as they return to league action this weekend, where they’ll be favourites to notch three points against an Almere City side that’s lost their last five.

A brace from Altor Cantalapiedra looked to have put Twente on course for the KNVB Beker semi-finals in midweek, but joy for the Enschede club soon turned to heartbreak as Willem II fought back to claim a 2-3 win at De Grolsch Veste.

Twente will be mightily disappointed to exit the competition after putting up a great fight against decent top flight opposition, but the result could well turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Marino Pusic’s side as they chase automatic promotion back to Eredivisie at the first time of asking.

That will now be Twente’s sole aim with 17 games remaining, and they’re in excellent shape after five consecutive victories in the league. They were a mile off their best in a 1-0 home win against Jong Utrecht last week, but the distraction of the cup definitely had something to do with that and we can expect a much more focused effort from them at Yanmar Stadion this weekend.

The victory over Jong means that Twente remain just two points behind leaders Den Bosch, and they’re quickly emerging as the main rivals to The Blue White Dragons, with Go Ahead Eagles and Sparta Rotterdam now four and six points back respectively in 3^rd and 4^th.

Almere City are the opponents for Twente on match day 22 and they couldn’t be facing a team in more contrasting form.

City have lost five on the bounce following a 2-1 defeat to Go Ahead last weekend, and Schappenkoppen now find themselves in 12^th position going into the weekend, four points behind the Play-off places.

The loss in Deventer was a much improved effort from Michele Santoni’s side compared to some of their dismal recent performances, but they still came away without any reward after a stoppage time equaliser was disallowed.

They have it all to do at Yanmar Stadion this weekend with the visitors boasting the joint best away record in the division (W7, D2, L1) and City’s losing streak looks set to continue, for the time being at least.

Twente ran out 1-0 winners in October’s reverse fixture at De Grolsch Veste and they’re a cracking price here at odds-against to rack up a sixth league success on the spin, providing of course that they’re midweek exertions haven’t taken too much of a toll.

Almere will need a much easier opportunity than this you feel to return to winning ways and odds of around 9/4 for them to bag a first victory in eight against Eerste Divisie’s 2^nd best team are terribly short. We expect more fight from the hosts but Twente should have too much class for them and a 1-3 scoreline in favour of the visitors is our correct score prediction.