NEC vs Go Ahead Eagles: A Clash of Leaky Defenses
NEC Nijmegen return to the Goffertstadion on Sunday with bruises all over their season. Eight goals conceded without reply in their last two games, confidence punctured at home and abroad, and a high defensive line that keeps inviting trouble.
Go Ahead Eagles arrive with their own issues, but with something NEC badly lack right now: a ruthless finisher in red-hot form.
NEC chasing control, but not goals
Dick Schreuder’s side sit 10th in the Eredivisie with seven points from six matches, a position that feels more fragile than stable. The numbers tell you why.
Their last league outing ended in a 3-0 defeat at Cambuur. NEC saw plenty of the ball but were picked off with brutal simplicity. Ilyes Hamache struck either side of half time, exploiting space behind that adventurous back line, before Iwan Henstra added a stoppage-time third to deepen the sense of vulnerability.
Then came Turin.
NEC’s Europa League trip to Juventus produced a 5-0 beating that looked harsh on the passing stats but not on the scoreboard. Schreuder’s men completed 497 passes at 91% accuracy, controlled long spells of possession and still mustered only two shots on target from 11 attempts. All that patient build-up, and almost nothing to show for it.
The pattern is hard to ignore: a team that wants to play on the front foot but keeps leaving the back door wide open, and an attack that can circulate the ball without landing the punch.
They have not scored in their last two matches. That drought has coincided with fitness doubts over winger Clement Bischoff, one of NEC’s more productive creative sparks earlier in the campaign. Without him fully fit, the supply lines have dulled.
Responsibility has again fallen on captain Tjaronn Chery, who leads the club’s league scoring with three goals. NEC have also earned two penalties this season, more than any other Eredivisie side, a sign of their ability to get into dangerous areas even if open-play goals have dried up.
The bigger question is whether this squad has the legs and depth to keep playing this way. A summer run into the Champions League qualifying rounds stacked fixtures early, and as September drags on, the schedule is starting to bite into a thin group.
Go Ahead Eagles: chaos, chances and Tengstedt
If NEC are fragile, Go Ahead Eagles are frenetic.
Joseph Oosting’s side sit one place above them in ninth with nine points, built on a wild blend of attacking ambition and defensive looseness. They have conceded 13 goals in six league matches. Clean sheets? None.
Yet they keep coming forward.
Their most recent outing, a 1-1 home draw with Groningen, underlined the identity. Go Ahead Eagles slung in 35 crosses, relentlessly working the flanks and loading the box. The pressure eventually told in the 82nd minute when Soren Tengstedt levelled, his movement again too sharp to track.
There could have been more. Stefan Sigurdarson missed a clear late chance to win it, a moment that captured a wider theme: plenty of chances, not always the finish to match.
That wastefulness was on show in a breathless 3-3 draw at FC Utrecht and a 5-2 defeat at AZ Alkmaar, games that sandwiched a more controlled 3-1 home victory over ADO Den Haag. Go Ahead Eagles rarely die wondering. They simply try to outscore you.
Tengstedt has been the headline act. With five goals and two assists, he leads the Eredivisie scoring charts outright, drifting in from the right into central pockets that defenders struggle to police. His timing and angles have repeatedly shredded back lines already on the turn.
Behind him, Victor Edvardsen has become the side’s creative hinge. He fashioned seven chances in the draw with Groningen alone, dropping into spaces between midfield and attack, threading passes into runners and keeping the tempo high in the final third.
Defensively, Oosting knows the numbers are ugly. Thirteen conceded in six tells its own story. But with this front line, Go Ahead Eagles have been willing to live on the edge.
At the back, captain Joris Kramer anchors the defence in front of goalkeeper Kjetil Haug. Kramer’s distribution from deep has grown into a key release valve, allowing Go Ahead Eagles to play through pressure rather than simply clip balls into the channels. When it works, they can turn defence into attack in a couple of passes. When it doesn’t, they are exposed.
Team news: thin margins, key doubts
NEC’s injury list has not helped Schreuder’s search for stability.
Emre Mor is ruled out with a groin problem and is not expected back until mid-October. Deveron Fonville remains sidelined with an ankle injury that should keep him out until early October.
Ahmetcan Kaplan is a doubt with a knee issue and is being monitored day-to-day. Bischoff is also listed as a fitness concern after the trip to Turin, though the club has yet to confirm his status officially. If he misses out or is only fit enough for the bench, NEC lose one of their few natural outlets capable of stretching the pitch.
A likely NEC XI: Polster; Kabar, Storm, Sandler; Tahaui, Geiger, Nejasmic, Thomas; Chery, Tadic; Sierhuis.
For Go Ahead Eagles, Oosting’s selection picture is clearer.
Gerrit Nauber is still managing a leg injury on a day-to-day basis and will not feature. Pim Saathof continues his recovery from a knee problem. Beyond that, the coach has a settled core to lean on, with the attacking unit intact and in rhythm.
Expected Go Ahead Eagles lineup: Haug; Sampsted, Dirksen, Kramer, James; Meulensteen, Linthorst; Tengstedt, Edvardsen, Suray; Sigurdarson.
Prediction: goals on both sides, edge to the visitors
Everything about this match-up points to an open game.
NEC have enough quality in the final third, especially through Chery and Dusan Tadic, to test any Eredivisie defence. Home advantage at the Goffertstadion should help them shake off some of the European hangover and finally break their scoring drought.
But the numbers at the back are brutal: eight conceded without reply in two games, the same high line repeatedly undone, and little time on the training ground to reset.
Go Ahead Eagles carry their own defensive flaws into Nijmegen, having failed to keep a clean sheet in six league matches. They give you chances. They also create more than most, and in Tengstedt they possess the sharpest cutting edge on the pitch.
If this turns into the kind of end-to-end contest both teams’ recent form suggests, that extra bit of composure in front of goal could decide it.
Prediction: NEC 1-2 Go Ahead Eagles.
For NEC, the question is no longer just whether they can play their football. It’s whether they can keep playing it without the season slipping away before autumn has even settled in.
