Zwolle vs Utrecht prediction: NETHERLANDS: Eredivisie betting tips on match 2023-08-26 10:15.
Sunday’s first match of this partially truncated third round will see at least one club collect their first point(s) of the new league season. Newcomers PEC Zwolle, who in the last few rounds of the 2022/23 Eerste Divisie relinquished the title to Heracles, lost two difficult encounters with Sparta Rotterdam (2-1) and Twente (3-1) despite finding the net. In recent years, PEC have often succeeded in making life difficult for upcoming opponents FC Utrecht, with four of the last five meetings stalemates.
PEC sold many youngsters during the off-season such as Thomas van den Belt, Ian Beelen, Younes Taha and Rav van den Berg, trading them in for several old acquaintances. Younes Namli and Thomas Lam returned to the capital of Overijssel this summer to provide the team with more experience and need to lead the way in getting the team their first success of the season.
Going down 2-0 away to PSV in the opening round understandably didn’t cause alarm or concern in theDomstad, but when the side went down by the same scoreline at home to Heerenveen last weekend, that was a different story. Whereas all other clubs have at least two goals to their name after two matchweeks, Utrecht are still looking for their first goal, having finished last weekend last in the league for shots on target (six).
Utrecht are the only club in the league whose first two games of the campaign both produced fewer than 2.5 total goals. As long as Anastasios Douvikas remains on the books rather than being sold, the goals for Utrecht should come naturally and come soon, given he was joint-top scorer of the competition last season with 19 strikes.
Players to watch: Zwolle’s Lennart Thy has an impressive record of 14 goals from his last 14 competitive outings, whilst PEC is the only club against whom Hidde ter Avest has two career goals – both from the two most recent of his eight games against the Blauwvingers.
Hot stat: Both teams scored on the day in all but one of the last 14 head-to-heads.