📏 Form Guide

Heracles Almelo

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Heracles Almelo will be looking to improve on their last outing here following a 1-0 Eredivisie loss in their previous game against FC Twente.

In that match, Heracles Almelo managed 39% possession and 4 shots on goal with 1 of them on target. For their opponents, FC Twente got 11 shots on goal with 3 of them on target. Myron Boadu (54') was the scorer for FC Twente.

An interesting theme in more recent Heracles Almelo games is the number of nil scores.

Taking their prior 6 matches before this one, in 5 of them a bet on BTTS would have lost.

Pre-game facts show that Heracles Almelo:

• are winless against AZ in their previous 2 league matches.
• are undefeated in their last 3 league matches at home.

AZ

WWDWWW 📈

AZ go into this meeting after a 2-0 Eredivisie win versus Vitesse in their previous fixture.

In that match, AZ managed 61% possession and 17 attempts on goal with 5 of them on target. For AZ, the goalscorers were Dani de Wit (53') and Vangelis Pavlidis (64'). For their opponents, Vitesse got 8 attempts on goal with 2 of them on target.

A series of outstanding showings from the AZ defenders has resulted in their ‘goals against’ tally amounting to 2 from their last 6 clashes in total. Over that same period of time, their forwards have scored 15. That aside, we will just have to wait and see if that pattern will persist in this game.

Coming into this clash, AZ are undefeated in their last 5 league matches away from home.

🤜🤛 Head to head

A glance at their prior head-to-head meetings dating back to 29/11/2020 shows us that Heracles Almelo have won 1 of these & AZ 4, with the number of drawn results being 1.

There were also goals galore in those games, with 23 in total at an average of 3.83 goals per meeting.

The last league clash featuring these clubs was Eredivisie match day 5 on 28/09/2023 which finished with the scoreline of AZ 1-1 Heracles Almelo.

The match was refereed by Danny Makkelie.

📋 Team News: Heracles Almelo

Stijn Bultman (Meniscus injury), Nikolai Laursen (Cruciate ligament tear) and Sava-Arangel Cestic (Broken ankle) will not be taking part for Heracles Almelo boss Erwin van de Looi.

We are thinking that Heraclieden look set to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation for this game, beginning the first half with Michael Brouwer, Navajo Bakboord, Kelvin Leerdam, Justin Hoogma, Fredrik Oppegaard, Marko Vejinovic, B. De Keersmaecker, Bryan Limbombe, Jordy Bruijn, Ruben Roosken and Jizz Hornkamp.

ℹ️ Team News: AZ

AZ manager Maarten Martens has to choose a team with limited availability. Lewis Schouten (Wrist fracture), Sem Westerveld (Meniscus injury) and Mayckel Lahdo (unknown injury) will miss out on this game.

From our viewpoint, AZ seem likely to begin the game with a 4-2-3-1 lineup, starting the game with Mathew Ryan, Yukinari Sugawara, Wouter Goes, Riechedly Bazoer, David Moeller Wolfe, Kristijan Belic, Jordy Clasie, Sven Mijnans, Dani de Wit, Ruben van Bommel and Vangelis Pavlidis.

⚡ Prediction

We’re of the view that Heracles Almelo should be able to breach the defence of this AZ outfit, however a single goal likely won’t be as many as they will have scored against them.

Our selection here is for a tight encounter finishing with a 1-2 winning score for AZ after 90 minutes. Should be an interesting one.

Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Lucas Pereira, 16:03 03/04/2024