SBV Excelsior vs FC Utrecht - prediction, team news, lineups

SBV Excelsior big FC Utrecht astatine Stadion Woudestein successful Rotterdam connected Sunday successful an Eredivisie fixture that pits a settled fourth-placed broadside against a struggling visitant inactive searching for its archetypal league triumph of the season.

Ruben den Uil's compact, counterattacking Excelsior broadside get afloat of assurance aft an businesslike commencement to the season, portion Anthony Correia is already firefighting astatine Utrecht, whose defence has been picked isolated connected a near-weekly ground and whose supporters made unwanted headlines 8 days earlier.

Match preview

Excelsior beryllium 4th successful the Eredivisie array with 10 points from 5 matches, a instrumentality built connected a defence that has conceded lone 5 goals each season.

Den Uil's broadside person mislaid conscionable erstwhile successful the league this term, a tally that includes back-to-back wins astatine location to Sparta Rotterdam (2-1) and distant astatine Willem II (3-0), the second underlining however effectual Excelsior tin beryllium erstwhile they get successful down opponents.

That momentum was checked successful midweek erstwhile Noe Lebreton's stoppage-time equaliser rescued a 2-2 gully for NEC Nijmegen successful a fixture played connected Tuesday, denying Excelsior a 3rd consecutive triumph contempt the visitors managing lone 31 percent possession and inactive carving retired 4 large chances.

David Garden leads the goalscoring charts with 3 goals, portion Irakli Yegoian has already supplied 4 assists from midfield, repeatedly turning antiaircraft stops into accelerated transitions up the pitch.

Excelsior person scored 12 goals successful 5 matches, a tally that, combined with their meagre goals-against column, gives them the healthiest extremity quality of immoderate broadside extracurricular the apical three.

History adds an other furniture of intrigue fixed Utrecht had gone 12 league meetings unbeaten against Excelsior earlier the corresponding fixture connected April 26, 2026, erstwhile Excelsior produced a stunning 5-0 victory, the club's astir emphatic effect of the calendar year.

Utrecht caput to Rotterdam 15th with conscionable 2 points from 5 matches, a wretched instrumentality for a nine that finished sixth past play and appointed Anthony Correia, caller from guiding Telstar to Eredivisie safety, arsenic Ron Jans's successor implicit the summer.

Correia's rebuild has stumbled severely retired of the blocks, with 3 defeats from the opening 5 fixtures, a tally that has brought losses by 1-2 to FC Groningen, 1-4 to AZ Alkmaar and 1-6 to PSV Eindhoven, either broadside of a laboured 3-3 gully with Sparta Rotterdam.

That location lucifer against PSV unsocial accounted for six of the 18 goals Utrecht person present conceded successful 5 league games, an mean of 3.6 per match, and the nine has yet to support a azygous cleanable expanse this season.

The sojourn of Go Ahead Eagles past play produced the club's astir chaotic day yet: Utrecht trailed 3-0 done goals from Mathis Suray, Soren Tengstedt and Victor Edvardsen, and aft Dani de Wit pulled 1 backmost to marque it 1-3, sections of the Bunnikside ultras threw fireworks and past integrative cups onto the pitch, forcing referee Martin van den Kerkhof to wantonness the contention for bully aft 65 minutes.

The KNVB ordered the remaining 26 minutes to beryllium played retired down closed doors connected Tuesday, and with Go Ahead inactive 3-1 up from wherever the archetypal lucifer had been halted, Utrecht completed a singular comeback erstwhile Matisse Didden headed location a country earlier Artem Stepanov converted a stoppage-time penalty, won for a foul connected Adrian Blake, to implicit an bonzer 3-3 draw.

The effect did small to insubstantial implicit Utrecht's antiaircraft problems, and Stepanov, connected indebtedness from Bayer Leverkusen, has emerged arsenic the 1 accordant attacking outlet with 4 goals already, leaving Correia needing acold much extortion successful beforehand of his backmost 3 if that aboriginal committedness is not to beryllium wasted connected a mislaid campaign.

SBV Excelsior Eredivisie form:

FC Utrecht Eredivisie form:

Team News

Simon Janssen started and played 45 minutes of Wednesday's gully astatine NEC earlier being withdrawn for Kasey Bos, which points to squad rotation alternatively than injury, truthful Den Uil should person his first-choice wing-back disposable for this one.

Noah Naujoks has been retired since August 15 with the nine targeting this nonstop fixture for his comeback, Stijn van Gassel is expected to proceed successful extremity down a backmost 3 of Casper Widell, Jan Plug and Rick Meissen, the aforesaid antiaircraft portion that has underpinned Excelsior's meagre concession complaint each season.

Correia's wounded database is considerably longer, with Joris van Overeem, Niklas Vesterlund, Alonzo Engwanda, Kevin Paredes, Miliano Jonathans, Marius Broholm and Victor Jensen each unavailable for the travel to Rotterdam.

Noah Ohio remains a longer-term absentee too, inactive moving his mode backmost from country connected a torn patellar tendon suffered portion connected indebtedness astatine Real Valladolid earlier this year.

That leaves Correia with small borderline for further injuries successful cardinal areas, and it is small astonishment that Vasilios Barkas, Nikolas Panagiotou, Guus Offerhaus and Matisse Didden are each expected to clasp their places from the Go Ahead Eagles comeback.

SBV Excelsior imaginable starting lineup:

Van Gassel; Widell, Plug, Meissen; Janssen, Hartjes, Yegoian, Da Silva Moreira; Thorsteinsson, Garden, Silva Timas

FC Utrecht imaginable starting lineup:

Barkas; Didden, Offerhaus, Panagiotou; Zagre, De Wit, Van den Berg, Horemans; Cathline, Stepanov, Alarcon

We say: SBV Excelsior 2-1 FC Utrecht

Excelsior's compact antiaircraft signifier has been the instauration of their beardown start, and a Utrecht broadside that has conceded 18 goals successful 5 matches without a cleanable expanse is improbable to find the distant travel immoderate much comfy than its erstwhile 5 outings.

Stepanov's penalty-box instincts mean Utrecht should person capable prime to score, but the spread betwixt the 2 defences, combined with Excelsior's ratio successful beforehand of extremity done Garden and Yegoian, points to a constrictive location win.

The reverse fixture successful April ended successful a one-sided 5-0 rout, and portion a repetition of that scoreline looks improbable fixed Correia's broadside has shown existent combat successful salvaging a constituent against Go Ahead Eagles, the underlying numbers inactive favour the hosts to determination person to parity successful a head-to-head grounds that has traditionally leaned Utrecht's way, with 32 wins from the 50 erstwhile Eredivisie meetings betwixt the 2 clubs.

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