FC Eindhoven vs Sparta Rotterdam Predictions

A run of five games without a win at the turn of the year including a 0-3 loss to leaders Twente all but ended Sparta Rotterdam’s hopes of landing the Eerste Divisie title, however Henk Fraser’s side have rediscovered their form of late. Last week’s 2-1 success at home to RKC made it three victories on the spin for the former six time Dutch champions, and they reduced their arrears at the top to nine points following Twente’s 1-1 draw at Roda JC. Can the Rotterdam outfit continue their resurgence on match day 28 when they square off against an FC Eindhoven side who are without a win in four?

Sparta’s collapse in January and early February seems pretty unfathomable when you look at their last three results – the standout being a massive 6-1 demolition of 3^rd placed Go Ahead Eagles at Het Kasteel a fortnight ago, as striker Halil Dervisoglu smashed in an incredible four goals.

And the young Turk was at it again last Friday, netting the winner three minutes from time against RKC after Laros Duarte cancelled out Sylla Sow’s opener for the Waalwijk side.

With a Play-off place already assured after securing the Period 1 table, the shackles appear to have gone from Sparta since they were effectively batted out of the automatic promotion race by Twente on match day 24, when the Enschede club romped to a ruthless 0-3 triumph in Rotterdam.

12 goals to accompany their maximum haul of nine points from their last three outings clearly shows that Sparta are back to their fluent best – and they are a team to keep on side from a betting perspective, at least for the time being.

The opposite can probably be said of FC Eindhoven, who look to be petering out after a fine run of five straight wins between late December and early February.

Last week’s 2-0 loss at Almere City was Blauw-witten’s third defeat in four matches, and David Nascimento’s charges now find themselves back down in 14^th place having briefly broken into the Play-off places a few weeks ago.

The presence of both Jong PSV and Jong Ajax in the top nine is likely to mean that 11^th place should be good enough to secure a Play-off berth this season, but Eindhoven have work to do from here to fulfil that ambition as they are currently four points behind 11^th placed RKC.

That deficit could encourage Nascimento’s side to play with a bit more risk as they need to put wins on the board quickly, but such tactics should play into the hands of free scoring Sparta this Friday.

The visitors have an underwhelming record on the road this term with three wins, seven draws and three defeats from 13, but they put four goals past Dordrecht last time out on their travels and they will feel Eindhoven are there for the taking considering the hosts have lost six of their 13 outings at Jan Louwers Stadion.

Sparta comfortably won the reverse fixture 2-0 in September to enhance their dominant head to head record over Eindhoven (13 wins, four draws, four defeats) and we strongly fancy Henk Fraser’s side to get the job done again here via a 1-3 scoreline.